Starter trouble

[Infinitrium]

Well, a few weeks ago before I had all that overheating trouble, my starter was acting up on me. I turned the key and got nothing. I popped the hood and wiggled some wires on the starter and the starter worked again. A week or so after that, I had starter trouble again. I tried wiggling wires and it didn't help. There was a small white plastic female connector that was loose so I tried wiggling that and it made no difference. I took the starter off and got the spare one I had. The spare one mounts a bit differently, only 2 of the 3 bolt holes will line up. The old starter was fairly hard to turn by hand, the spare was much easier to turn by hand. I get the spare one bolted up then go to reconnect the wires and I notice the solenoid on the spare starter has different connections than on the one that came off the car. The spare starter's solenoid's connections are laid out like this (mspaint to the rescue!):



The starter that came off the car has its solenoid connections laid out like this:



When I hooked the wires up to the spare starter, the starter motor would spin but the starter motor wouldn't mesh up with the flywheel. I've already ordered a new solenoid, but I suppose I should have asked here first if there is a way I can connect the wires to the spare starter's solenoid so that it'll work as it's supposed to? If I could get it to work then it would save me 40 bucks, the cost of the new solenoid I have on order.

[Op-Ivy]

I'm not sure about the new starter, but I used to have the same starter problem as you. To temporarily fix it I would do the same thing as you.

In the end, I took the starter power line off, cleaned it and put some di-electric grease on it. Haven't had a problem since!

[Infinitrium]

Come to think of it, I don't even know if I had the wires even connected in the proper order on the spare starter. I just put all 3 onto the one stud that's at the 12 o'clock position. Umm, is it supposed to be connected some other way?

[Infinitrium]

My new solenoid has arrived at the shop, and tomorrow I am going to put it onto my starter. Can anyone tell me how the wire connections on the solenoid go? I thought I'd ask here just to make sure.

[Smokey Eddy]

I've been having starting problems and i took my starter apart and cleaned it up and regreased it and it works beauty now. I don't know exactly what can go wrong inside the starter its just a coil and magnets and thats basically it so i'd say ensuring your leads are all good is your key here. Also check everything on the battery because you may not be aware if your batt becomes disconected while you're driving because there is no way of knowing except for when you try to start it again
sometimes i would turn the key and nothing happened it was because my ground came off my batt.
just an idea

[jtanguay]

my positive lead to the starter actually broke off one day.  it was sooo corroded  :lol: turn key and hey! nothings happening! soldered that baby on and no more worries