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Starter issue??

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bugedd

bugedd

Jedi Knight
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Yesterday I was going to leave the house and forgot that I had the bugeye in gear when I started it. No big deal, it lurched forward a bit, took it out of gear, hit the starter pull, and nothing happened. When I did this, the fuel pump got real quiet, and the ignition light went out. With just the key on, the ignition light is on and the fuel pump is cranking away. Did that somehow fry my starter? Or should I be looking at something else?
 
Sounds more like electrical resistance. Check your battery terminals. Also check for corrosion or loose connections at the other end of all the big cables.
 
If everything dims or quits working when the starter pull is pulled, that would imply a short, or am I wrong? And given that I loaded the starter up by accidentally leaving it in gear, wouldn't that suggest that the starter shorted?
 
You just jammed the drive, most likely. Rocking it in gear could free it, or you'll have to resort to turning the shaft if it's the type that protrudes, or you'll need to almost remove the starter. The dimming lights bit is not surprising if the starter is jammed and trying to turn.

Peter
 
Hey Peter, thanks for the tip. Edd here in Chico, looking forward to my shocks next week!
 
No worries, not like I wasn't able to drive it in the mean time and jam up the starter :smile: Now to take things apart tonight. I tried rocking the car in gear, but nothing happened. Guess I need to pull it and try to manually spin it over.
 
No you need to take a 1/4 wrench and turn back in the the little square drive sticking out of the end of the stock starters. The Bendix Drive is jammed and cannot retract. It needs a little bit of twisting space so it can spin up and turn over the engine. I keep a really small adjustable box wrench in Bugsy as this typically happened several times a year. Changed to a rebuilt started last year and has not happened since but I am prepared. This is a simple fix every Spridget owner needs to know.
 
I just tried spinning over the shaft that protrudes out the back of the starter, and its spins fine. I can see it spinning through a small gap in the dust cover for the starter on the trans. I have 12V to the starter pull, continuity when pulled, but when pulling the starter pull the voltage drops to .025V at the starter pull on both the battery side and the starter side, and the same voltage at the starter. Could something going bad in the starter be eating up all the voltage? Any way to test for this?
 
while I only partially understand what you are describing, two thought.

1. It might be the battery - can you try with another battery or with a booster?

2. with a battery jump cable, you should be able to run a line directly from the battery to the starter. This will either eliminate or implicate everything in between.
 
Well its a new battery, and it reads 12V at the terminals, so it should be fine. The catalyst for the problem was when I went to start the car with the car in gear and forgot to push in the clutch or take it out of gear. That implicates the starter. I thought about the jumper wire, that may be my next thing to try. But what gauge wire should I run, that must draw a lot of amps.
 
Yes, heavy guage needed. I'd use a jumper cable, you may have a short in the starter.


Kurt.
 
If it is the starter, any reason to go to a gear reduction starter? I'd just like to have something smaller under the hood, less clutter.
 
K, I ran a jumper cable to the positive on the starter and bumped it to the battery, and I heard a motor in the starter spin, but it didn't engage the flywheel and crank the motor over. thoughts?
 
Sounds like a stuck Bendix gear. You may have to remove the starter and free off the gear that screws its way up and down the shaft to engage the flywheel ring gear.
 
I've never seen a reason to go to the gear reduction starter on a spridget. The original starter is quite reliable. I have a whole pile of starters and generators...the starters are all good and the gens are mostly bad.

Kurt.
 
one thing I was thinking is I am doing the Datsun 5 speed conversion when I can afford the kit. Apparently you need to drill for starter clearance on the datsun trans, but maybe if using the gear reduction starter you won't need to do this?
 
It's also possible that you have a bad connection at the battery, which just coincidentally started causing trouble now. If a separate connection spins the starter, and the electrics don't die when you use that connection, that seems likely. Cleaning the battery terminal is easy enough.
 
I just got the starter out, everything looks fine, but then again I don't know what to look for. With getting full 12V to the starter pull, the batter connection should be fine.
 
So if you hook to a 12V Source does the starter spin up?
 
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