Bad starter or is it just me?

[impinhigh]

Folks,
If you know what’s good for you, don’t stand next to me in a thunderstorm!! Well, I’ve been working on my ride since Turkeyday and have it pretty much good to go..Now this:
When I had my R16 out I install a "remanufactured" Nissan short starter along with my header. It performed well right form the start after dropping the motor back in and getting the timing and valves squared away. Then performance started to drop off, slower cranking even with a fully charged battery, progressively over several days in the garage the gear engagement became more grinding and finally now with a full charge I get no solenoid click at all. Sounds and feels like starter to me but what do you all say? Could I have a problem elsewhere, can I check it anyway other than pulling it out?

Then to add crap sauce to my sh*t sandwich of a day, the wife breaks the news of our 2500.00 IRS bill due on the 15th…lovely.



TIA!!
Matt Jacquet
68 1600 look for the Roadster with the rain cloud directly over head!!

[Bonk]

Sounds like it ..
But make sure all the wiring on that little bugger is good and you have a good Pos+ lead going to it and that your Ground- is good on your block and while your at it make sure that little wire that tells your starter to "start cranking" in good and tight in there ....lol the other day i thought i lost my battery and all it was is that little wire came off whilei was running it .
If all that looks good a clean and tight i would make sure your eng is ok .Trun it over by hand, use a socket on your crank and trun it over a few times .If that proves to be good i would have to say its your starter and pull the little bugger and have it tested at a local parts house or if you know what your doing do it off the car

It does sound like it was going bad though by the way you are talking

good luck ..

[S Allen]

Matt,

It sounds like the starter may be the culprit although I have had a defective battery display pretty much the same symptons. Depending on how old the battery is you could pull it and have it tested just to eliminate that possiblity. Short of pulling the starter and having it tested it is a mystery. Unfortunately the location of the starter right next to the hot exhaust header can shorten the life of a starter. I have replaced several starters in my 67.5. I finally bought one of those reflective starter blankets from Summit Racing. I am not sure how effective it has been but it has been a while since I had to replace a starter. Did you remove the traingular brace on the drivers side to ease the removal and installation of the starter? Pretty easy to do and it makes the job of changing starters pretty easy.

As to your tax dilema I was in the same boat. It seems like half of my pay goes to taxes and they still always want more. The state is not much better. I have no exemptions any more and even claiming zero does no good. Oh well, at least we are still making money. It is a tough job market out there and I am thankful to be working.

Steve

[impinhigh]

The wires and connectors all look good, battery with a full charge and head lights are bright, like I said everything worked and performed great in the first few days and everything work perfect with the “long� starter I had in before the engine pull. Does this happen to a starter with less 100 miles?
The PO did remove material from that brace section (looks like a big shark took a chomp out of it.) Good news.. Before the starter died on me, I did get a few hot laps and it run much better than at anytime since I’ve owed the car. I just want to drive it for a while…

Me and wife both file 0/0 and with out fail we owe every year. This one is about 2x as much as usual. I do have to say the employment rules!!

[S Allen]

Matt,

Were you running a header with the long starter or the stock exhaust? The header puts out more heat. I have seen a rebuilt starter go bad in several hundred miles. I would place all bets on the starter. Where did you get it? Surely they will exchange it for a new one. I have all my starters rebuilt at a local shop and he guarantees them so if they do quit working I get a replacement. I had a gear reduction go out on me in less than 400 miles and he replaced it no questions asked.

You can clean up the saw tooth effect left by the previous owner by buying a special bit to drill out spot welds. I think there are only three or four spot welds holding the plate on. Eastwood Company sells them or any good autobody supplies shop should have them as well. You can then fabricate a plate out of aluminum and bolt it back on when the starter job is finished. I do that to all my roadsters as it makes changing the starter a breeze.

[spl310]

Some Roadster trivia about that metal plate for you. Nissan issued a service bulletin on the 1500 suggesting that the spot welds get drilled out and the plate reinstalled with screws so that the starter replacement can be facilitated. It is surprising that they did not make that a production change....

[TR]

Steve,

There's a special bit for drilling out spot welds? Have some info?

TR

[Bonk]

spot weld remover

low dollor one...
http://www.eastwoodco.com/itemdy01.asp? ... Key1=WelDg

high dollor one
http://www.eastwoodco.com/itemdy01.asp? ... Key1=WelDg

Latrz

[impinhigh]

Thanks to all for the responses Guys!! It turned out to be the spade connector had progressively pull back and falledn off. This caused the solenoid to have intermittent contact and finally no juice at all. I didn’t find the problem till I had the wheel off and was starting to wrench on the starter.
. Raul and I made a killer run up and down the coast range yesterday and the Roadster held together just fine building much needed confidence!!

Thanks Again!!

[S Allen]

Glad to hear it was an easy fix. It looks like you and Raul had an excellent time. I may try to do the Mt Hamilton Run the 17th. We will see.

Steve

[Guest]

Anyone heard of using a starter from a Datsun Forklift? I'm told they are low cost, are better (gear reduction) and identical in spec. Anyone know where to get them or can verify this rumour? Thanks.

[S Allen]

Yes, they do fit. They are not inexspensive as the last one I bought was $150.00 about twice what you would pay for a rebuilt 2 liter starter. They work great and are worth the extra dollars as far as I am concerned.

Steve

[Guest]

Ok, where can I find a froklift one? Is there a part number to get? Just in case I'd like to know where to get the rebuilt 2L starter for $75. The best I can find is at Rallye for for over $100. I think it's $150 for a new one.

[S Allen]

Okay, I was off a bit on my price for a 2 liter starter. I do know I bought one rebuilt for less than $100.00 from Rod of Rod's Datsun Parts-San Jose. Ralleye's prices are all on the high side. Nice guy and I have purchased from him in the past but prices are all high. I love it when people selling stuff on Ebay quote the Ralleye prices for the same items. As to the forklift starter part number--- I do not have it but if you find a local Nissan forklift dealer they should be able to help you. My brother and I stopped at a dealer in Des Moines, Iowa and they had them on the shelf. Sorry I could not be more helpful and I am not bashing Ralleye just stating the facts.

Steve

[spl310]

Dann at Rallye is the "granddaddy" of the vendors. He also has had years of overhead that the others don't have, and has parts that a lot of folks don't have. Yes, his prices are on the higher end of the scale, but I have seen other vendors exceed his prices on items at times.

I have to agree - Dann seems to be a nice guy. I have heard folks bash all of the vendors and I am sure that we all have our own take on things. I always figured that you have to be a bit quirky to be really "into" cars in general - and more so if you are into a particular type of car. (goes back to my wise crack about the Dodge commercial on another thread.) If someone is passionate about something (not just cars), folks that are not as passionate will see them as odd.

I guess that makes me odd!