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This is not my first go-around with auto electric rebuilders. Bear with me on this story.
Every Thursday I’m forced – yes, forced – to drive my ’80 TR-7 Spider on a 200 mile round trip along the coast of Maine; top down, through villages and along Maine’s only interstate highway. I leave my island home at 7:00 am, take a ferry, arrive on the mainland at 8:30, and then begin my drive. After completing my work, I then begin the return drive back to catch the last ferry at 4:30 pm.
In my last post, I enthused about crossing 100,000 with the TR. I did not post that, sporadically, the starter could take a few turns of the key to actually turn over the engine Since I live and work on an island and leave the TR on the mainland this time of year, planned maintenance is carefully, well, planned.. When I returned to the ferry terminal, I made a mental note to get a starter and/or solenoid so I would not be push starting the car in the future.
I shuddered at the thought as my recent experiences with auto electric rebuilding, viz, alternators, had been fraught with dangers. A run of Victoria British rebuilt electrics had proven to be wired incorrectly such that a local electric shop had to redo the insides for the alternator to function. And it’s done so just fined since then. What might this mean for a starter?
I looked across the street from the ferry terminal and realized that the nearby AutoZone store might have access to a rebuilt starter. Not only would they be able to get one, they said, but it would be airfreighted to the store at their expense and would come with a “lifetime” warranty. And the whole thing would cost over $50 less than Moss Motor’s advertised price. So I paid for it and decided that on Monday, I would travel from the island to the mainland to install the starter.
Fortunately for me, friends from Land Rover circles own a restoration/repair shop and permit me to sit in their forecourt and work on my TR or my old Land Rover [they get much humor over my ineptitude]. I get to use their additional equipment and they get coffee and doughnuts and humor from me.
I picked up the starter, which had arrived on time [a good omen, I thought], and drove the 15 minutes to the shop. On a glorious summer day, I put on my mechanics suit and began jacking up the TR with a trolley jack. I borrowed a couple of axle stands and some cardboard, and crawled under the car.
The starter lay under the exhaust manifold and above the header pipe; even the Haynes manual said you had to undo the header pipe from the manifold. I stared at the nuts on the stud and shuddered. The Series Land Rovers have the same arrangement which assures that if you haven’t lubricated them, and don’t tighten them up occasionally, they will break in the exhaust manifold. The last time these nuts and studs had been touched was by a student mechanic two years ago, when a Vic Brit started had failed and another one have been installed. They looked quite rusted in place. So I sprayed them liberally with PB Blaster, a renowned penetrant and let them sit.
Naturally, you can’t get a socket onto the 9/16” nuts and bolts that hold the starter to the housing, so I used wrenches. One great asset was a ratcheting wrench [not mine, the mechanic’s] with very fine action. All four of the nuts and bolts could be accessed from below or above the car. Since there was little room to maneuver under the car, the process took quite some time. The engine retained heat for a very long time; I felt as though my hands and arms had been placed in a frying pan.
I also noticed that the spade connection for the ignition wire was very loose on the spade – geez, what if that’s what the problem was? Nah. That would be too good to be true.
One exhaust nut came off easily. A second required a swivel and an extension on the ratchet, but it came off without breakage, too. The third- naturally – would not budge. I took a propane torch to the nut and watched the exhaust sealant at the flange burn off with small, licking flames above my head. I kept heating the nut and spraying in more penetran, but to no avail. Finally I took an impact wrench, hooked it up to the air, and gently attacked the nut. Blissfully, it came off without shattering the stud.
So I removed the old starter and set it aside. Picking up the new one, I realized that there were two spade connectors and I had neglected to check which one the original had been hooked up to; this would require guesswork. I searched for signs of wear and determined that the lower one was the goods. Now I could connect the new starter.
Wedging it between the frame rail and exhaust [pardon the pun, please], I installed it and managed to get one bolt started. I buttoned up the bolts and nuts, finding that a stubby opened end wrench really helped with the invisible bolt head on the upper end of the starter. Then I put on lots of never-seize goop on the exhaust studs – noting fearfully all the while that the studs had little thread left on the lower ends – and sealant on the flange, and bolted up the exhaust.
This whole exercise had taken two hours, so you can imagine my disappointment when, upon hooking up the battery, the starter barely turned over on the first try. “Ah,” said the mechanic, “you must have dirty battery terminals.” I was skeptical. I put my battery tester on the battery and found it was at 12.5 volts. Dirty terminals would have prevented any charging from the alternator. Besides, this had not been a problem and they weren’t that dirty. We cleaned them up and found the same problem when I tried to restart the car. Then I felt the battery cables; both positive and negative were quite hot. Something was seriously wrong.
The mechanic, who really wanted to go home now, had a device that tests the entire electrical system. When we hooked it up to the car, I turned the key to start the car. The voltage dropped from 12.5 volts to 8.4 volts. We did the same test on his Subaru WRX and the voltage drop was from 12 volts to 11 volts. Houston, we have a problem.
I called the AutoZone store and two employees later, spoke with the Manager. “Once in a great while:” we get a bad rebuilt starter. In order to replace yours, you’ll need to bring it to the store where we can hook it up to our test equipment. I wondered out loud why we hadn’t hooked it up to “our test equipment” when it came in so I wouldn’t have wasted a day’s pay, a ferry ticket, and now a motel room, on a failed repair. No answer.
Refreshed by a trip to the bar the night before, I bought the mechanic breakfast and we headed out to the shop. I undid the very bolts I had so carefully tightened and cleaned the day before and took out the new starter. I also decided to install the old one since I needed the car for work on Thursday and could not afford another day on the mainland. First I clipped the connector the wrong spade terminal. When I tried to start up the car, it only went “click.” I crawled back underneath and found the second terminal. Then it started perfectly. By then it was lunchtime and we drove back into town with the new, defective starter. The AutoZone manager hooked it up to his test equipment and it failed on all of the four test counts – instantly. A new one should be in overnight but I’m going to hold on the replacement for now.
When I returned to the shop, I crawled back under the TR and noticed that the heat shield bolted to the exhaust header metal gasket was not bolted onto the front frame rails. No wonder it rattled at idle. Of course, it’s an odd sized 9/16” head coarse threaded bolt. I found one rummaging through the shop’s bolt drawer so at least that noise is gone. And I have the dubious comfort of knowing the exhaust manifold and header pipe are in reasonable if failing shape. At least the pipe is strong and intact.
When I cleaned up and headed out to get a haircut before catching the ferry home, I noted the car started perfectly every time. That may be good luck or good fortune, but for now, the car should be fine for Thursday’s trip. I’ll keep a small hammer in the car just in case. Needless to say, however, I will insist upon any rebuilt starter undergo a test before installation in the future.
Jeff
Every Thursday I’m forced – yes, forced – to drive my ’80 TR-7 Spider on a 200 mile round trip along the coast of Maine; top down, through villages and along Maine’s only interstate highway. I leave my island home at 7:00 am, take a ferry, arrive on the mainland at 8:30, and then begin my drive. After completing my work, I then begin the return drive back to catch the last ferry at 4:30 pm.
In my last post, I enthused about crossing 100,000 with the TR. I did not post that, sporadically, the starter could take a few turns of the key to actually turn over the engine Since I live and work on an island and leave the TR on the mainland this time of year, planned maintenance is carefully, well, planned.. When I returned to the ferry terminal, I made a mental note to get a starter and/or solenoid so I would not be push starting the car in the future.
I shuddered at the thought as my recent experiences with auto electric rebuilding, viz, alternators, had been fraught with dangers. A run of Victoria British rebuilt electrics had proven to be wired incorrectly such that a local electric shop had to redo the insides for the alternator to function. And it’s done so just fined since then. What might this mean for a starter?
I looked across the street from the ferry terminal and realized that the nearby AutoZone store might have access to a rebuilt starter. Not only would they be able to get one, they said, but it would be airfreighted to the store at their expense and would come with a “lifetime” warranty. And the whole thing would cost over $50 less than Moss Motor’s advertised price. So I paid for it and decided that on Monday, I would travel from the island to the mainland to install the starter.
Fortunately for me, friends from Land Rover circles own a restoration/repair shop and permit me to sit in their forecourt and work on my TR or my old Land Rover [they get much humor over my ineptitude]. I get to use their additional equipment and they get coffee and doughnuts and humor from me.
I picked up the starter, which had arrived on time [a good omen, I thought], and drove the 15 minutes to the shop. On a glorious summer day, I put on my mechanics suit and began jacking up the TR with a trolley jack. I borrowed a couple of axle stands and some cardboard, and crawled under the car.
The starter lay under the exhaust manifold and above the header pipe; even the Haynes manual said you had to undo the header pipe from the manifold. I stared at the nuts on the stud and shuddered. The Series Land Rovers have the same arrangement which assures that if you haven’t lubricated them, and don’t tighten them up occasionally, they will break in the exhaust manifold. The last time these nuts and studs had been touched was by a student mechanic two years ago, when a Vic Brit started had failed and another one have been installed. They looked quite rusted in place. So I sprayed them liberally with PB Blaster, a renowned penetrant and let them sit.
Naturally, you can’t get a socket onto the 9/16” nuts and bolts that hold the starter to the housing, so I used wrenches. One great asset was a ratcheting wrench [not mine, the mechanic’s] with very fine action. All four of the nuts and bolts could be accessed from below or above the car. Since there was little room to maneuver under the car, the process took quite some time. The engine retained heat for a very long time; I felt as though my hands and arms had been placed in a frying pan.
I also noticed that the spade connection for the ignition wire was very loose on the spade – geez, what if that’s what the problem was? Nah. That would be too good to be true.
One exhaust nut came off easily. A second required a swivel and an extension on the ratchet, but it came off without breakage, too. The third- naturally – would not budge. I took a propane torch to the nut and watched the exhaust sealant at the flange burn off with small, licking flames above my head. I kept heating the nut and spraying in more penetran, but to no avail. Finally I took an impact wrench, hooked it up to the air, and gently attacked the nut. Blissfully, it came off without shattering the stud.
So I removed the old starter and set it aside. Picking up the new one, I realized that there were two spade connectors and I had neglected to check which one the original had been hooked up to; this would require guesswork. I searched for signs of wear and determined that the lower one was the goods. Now I could connect the new starter.
Wedging it between the frame rail and exhaust [pardon the pun, please], I installed it and managed to get one bolt started. I buttoned up the bolts and nuts, finding that a stubby opened end wrench really helped with the invisible bolt head on the upper end of the starter. Then I put on lots of never-seize goop on the exhaust studs – noting fearfully all the while that the studs had little thread left on the lower ends – and sealant on the flange, and bolted up the exhaust.
This whole exercise had taken two hours, so you can imagine my disappointment when, upon hooking up the battery, the starter barely turned over on the first try. “Ah,” said the mechanic, “you must have dirty battery terminals.” I was skeptical. I put my battery tester on the battery and found it was at 12.5 volts. Dirty terminals would have prevented any charging from the alternator. Besides, this had not been a problem and they weren’t that dirty. We cleaned them up and found the same problem when I tried to restart the car. Then I felt the battery cables; both positive and negative were quite hot. Something was seriously wrong.
The mechanic, who really wanted to go home now, had a device that tests the entire electrical system. When we hooked it up to the car, I turned the key to start the car. The voltage dropped from 12.5 volts to 8.4 volts. We did the same test on his Subaru WRX and the voltage drop was from 12 volts to 11 volts. Houston, we have a problem.
I called the AutoZone store and two employees later, spoke with the Manager. “Once in a great while:” we get a bad rebuilt starter. In order to replace yours, you’ll need to bring it to the store where we can hook it up to our test equipment. I wondered out loud why we hadn’t hooked it up to “our test equipment” when it came in so I wouldn’t have wasted a day’s pay, a ferry ticket, and now a motel room, on a failed repair. No answer.
Refreshed by a trip to the bar the night before, I bought the mechanic breakfast and we headed out to the shop. I undid the very bolts I had so carefully tightened and cleaned the day before and took out the new starter. I also decided to install the old one since I needed the car for work on Thursday and could not afford another day on the mainland. First I clipped the connector the wrong spade terminal. When I tried to start up the car, it only went “click.” I crawled back underneath and found the second terminal. Then it started perfectly. By then it was lunchtime and we drove back into town with the new, defective starter. The AutoZone manager hooked it up to his test equipment and it failed on all of the four test counts – instantly. A new one should be in overnight but I’m going to hold on the replacement for now.
When I returned to the shop, I crawled back under the TR and noticed that the heat shield bolted to the exhaust header metal gasket was not bolted onto the front frame rails. No wonder it rattled at idle. Of course, it’s an odd sized 9/16” head coarse threaded bolt. I found one rummaging through the shop’s bolt drawer so at least that noise is gone. And I have the dubious comfort of knowing the exhaust manifold and header pipe are in reasonable if failing shape. At least the pipe is strong and intact.
When I cleaned up and headed out to get a haircut before catching the ferry home, I noted the car started perfectly every time. That may be good luck or good fortune, but for now, the car should be fine for Thursday’s trip. I’ll keep a small hammer in the car just in case. Needless to say, however, I will insist upon any rebuilt starter undergo a test before installation in the future.
Jeff
