Greetings all:

Please I need some reasurance that I have the right part.

The starter/battery cable broke on my '99 5.4L. I bought a remanufactured starter, new battery cable harness and new solinode for the one on the fire wall.

The old OEM starter was slightly different than the replacement. The original ground cable was connected to one of the mounting bolts of the starter. The red power lead was connected to the only large post of the solinode, there was a smaller solinode actuator connector. There was only one large post.

The new replacement fits into the mounting correctly, so I think i got the right part.

However, the solinode has one small post, for the actuator, and two large posts.

One of these posts has a small ground wire already attached to the body of the starter motor. Is it safe to assume that the negative battery wire also attaches to this stud? If that is true then I would also assume that the positive cable connects to the other large stud.

To confuse this more, the instructions that came with the starter imply that on some installations the attached ground wire may be removed.

If anyone can through some light on my problem I'll buy them a brew.

thanks

mark

 

Battery harness grounds to frame(smaller wire that comes up from starter mounting stud) and bottom starter mounting stud. That double nutted stud. First nut is to secures starter / 2nd nut secures battery ground.

The solenoid has a dedicated ground from starter (Top solenoid post) - This should already be connected out of the box - Top solenoid post.

Far left solenoid post is for the main battery positive connection while the bottom smaller post is for the little red wire.

Labatts blue sounds good, buy me a six pack and I'll post pictures. If you use the search bar - it's all free.

I'll post some picks anyway - have enough beer for now -



The Black Neg cable (from the battery) to the far left (circled in green) in the pic connects to the lower double nutted stud that secures the starter to the engine. The smaller black wire that connects with that also connects to the frame rail. Here's a pic of the frame ground -

 

Your new starter should look like this. A pic of the Bosch /Lifetime warranty starter I replaced @ 213,000 miles. -



Properly connected/Battery ground not shown/Starter to solenoid ground -top post -



Corrosion protected -

 

Corrosion protected -

[/QUOTE]

Dang brew- valve stick open on ya on that can of anti corrosion soup? That's right- you live in Michigan don't ya?

 

How did you know the valve broke ? - Yea it broke clean off , I had jam a piece of chicken wire in the valve to get anything out it - so much for aiming - it doesn't help . Man , that's some nasty sh^t to clean up

Yep, Michigan - there's not much left of the bed - body work every year is getting old..

 

Thanks JBrew for the pictures, that confirmed that I had the cable correct.

Now the next problem:

I bought the starter at autozone and installed. when I started the engine I noticed a high pitched whine. Turns out either the solinod did not disengage, the gear did not retract far enough to clear the cogs of the fly wheel.

Thinking I got the wrong part I took it back and got another, the same thing happened. I measured the distance between the mounting surface and the forward side of the flywheel and thought I had 1/4" clearance, but now I think that was probably eaten up when I tightned all the bolts.

unfortunatly I returned the original core so I have nothing to compare. but I'm certain that the starter cog was flush with face plate.

What brand is in your picture?

thanks for all you help

 

Yea, starters and alternator's - It's not to uncommon to get a bad Reman the first time around. You just go swap it for another until you get a good one


That's a factory starter - "Bosch". Had to buy a new one, It's was all I could find on a Sunday; Cost quite a bit, but is has a lifetime warranty.

Nothing was wrong with my old one until I tried removing the cables to clean the connections up a bit - I busted the fricken solenoid stud off AND I needed the truck Monday.... Figures

That was one of those -"Don't fix it if ain't broke" lessons"