help 95 grand caravan starter dead?

Hi,
My 1995 grand caravan starter is dead I THINK. I am not sure, i drove
the truck last night, was fine. Then went to go out this evening and it
would not start at all, no noise, lights/battery seem fine. then i
checked the connections and let the truck roll back few inches and now
it tries to start , but with only a clicking sound, it tries to engage
the fuel pump, but to now avail. how easy is it to replace the starter
and what tools do i need. if too hard, how much should it cost for a
repair shop to do it for me. Thanks Much, CR

 

Hi...

Sure sounds like the battery to me...

Take care.

Ken

 

Yeah, except the lights stay strong and seem to be fine, so i dunno.
Maybe i will get a new battery 1st and see what happens.

 

well, maybe it is the battery, i will take it to be checked after work
tomorrow, will see. I really dont want to spend alot of money right
now on it, but if it does need a starter i will get one, are they hard
to put in? never done that before, only solinoids and alternators.

 

Sounds like a typical Nippondenso starter ailment to
me...bad/burned/dirty contacts in the solenoid. Don't waste money on
a new battery until you check this out.

 

The soloniod is mounted as part of the starter sounds like it is bad. Give
it a wack with a hammer (A small One) while trying to start it

 

its the starter

 

I concur with the solenoid diagnosis. I just went through the same
thing with the ND starter on my '95 Eagle. It would click when you
keyed it (once per attempt) and not engage the starter. Sometimes it
would engage the starter, and then apparently the contact would break,
resulting in a short starter cycle and it wouldn't start.

Dismount the starter and open up the solenoid. There's nothing rocket
science about this. Two or three small screws and the cover comes off,
and you'll be looking at a plunger with a big head on it. On opposite
sides of the case there are two contacts that pass through the case.
The contacts wear from the electrical contact over the years. I went
to a local electrical rebuilder and bought the contacts for a buck a
piece. My starter hasn't misbehaved in several weeks now.

 

This has been a continual problem, as I've said before, with
Nippondenso starters since the mid-1970s, when they first ripped off
Chrysler's patents to built their version. Now, oddly enough,
Chrysler's using the poseurs!

 

The same thing happened on my 1994 GC years back. It was the contacts.
I had the rebuilder do it for me including the re & re. The only thing
they did more than replacing the contacts was to put the plunger on a
lathe and resurface the contact surface of the plunger so that it was
smooth and shiny (not rough and pitted as it WAS).

After that my starter never failed. And I had plenty of warning that
it was happening, so I had it fixed before I got stranded.

 

You shouldn't go by the lights. They don't use enough current. Try
blowing the horn while you try to start the car.

Why buy a new battery. A) It might just be the connections at the
battery or between the starter cable and the starter solenoid.
B) If the connections are dirty, it's hard to charge the battery also.
Do you have a volt meter. They sell for less than 20 dollars at Radio
Shack or Home Depot, get the cheapest digital meter, although analog
meters have advantages in some situations. A fully charged battery is
12.6 volts. Below 12 definitely needs recharging.

Maybe just put the battery on a 1-amp charger for several hours (24
for a full charge, but you don't need a full charge to start the car)
or a bigger charger if you are in a hurry to use the car.

That will charge the battery but unless the connections are clean, it
still won't start. Post back.


Remove NOPSAM to email me..

 

I have a 1998 Grand Caravan Sport with 100k miles and have recently had
this problem. Wasn't sure what it was at first, but concur that it's
related to the starter. I get it working by rocking the car a couple
of times, which "spins the teeth" inside the unit. Once it bypasses
the "bad spot", car starts immediately with no problem.

 

I'd put money on this being worn out Nippondenso solenoid contacts since
this is a known failure mode...

There have been many threads on this topic over the years in this newsgroup
and the following site may be of use:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Starter.shtml

Note Toyota also uses this same starter.

Bob