Diy

[templescroll]

Hi,
I climbed under my Ford Explorer and hit the seloniod / starter with a rubber mallet a couple times...THEN I went back and turn-on the key and it starts-up everytime, LOL. Why does this work!? Although the neighbors get a real kick out seeing this play out, I'm a woman & sometimes I wear a dress! Is there an inexpensive way to permanently fix this problem...without climbing under my car? And can I do it myself?

 

[colintrax]

Time for a new starter, can't remember why that works but eventually it won't work anymore.
Pretty easy to replace a starter if you're mechanical;
disconnect the negative cable from the battery, climb underneath and loosen up all the bolts. Then start taking them out. Hold it up with your free hand while you remove the last bolt. Then remove the nuts holding on the wires.
Instal the opposite, Fords are easy. No need for shims and crap

Starters aint cheap, but I just replaced the starter on my ranger. DB electrical was by far the cheapest. Got mixed reviews online but I haven't had any problems with it so far.
http://www.dbelectrical.com/p-1115-...er-mazda-b-navajo-29l-40l-90-9-automatic.aspx
^that's the starter you need
I also didn't have to send them my old starter back, and it came with instructions (albeit not the best)

 

[templescroll]

OKAY, ty Colintrax. just to make sure the starter is that wirey thing that looks kinda like a cylinder with wires coming out one end and bolted to a big shiney thing on the other end located in the middle of the underbelly of the beast, right? Do I need any special wrench or will an adjustable crescent work for this 'fun' project?

 

[Anime]

The reason it works is because the brushes wear out, and when they get to the end of their wear life, the spring that pushes them against the armature inside the starter is about at the end of it's tension, so banging the starter gets the brushes to contact the armature just a tiny bit more, the springs to push just a tiny bit more, and you'll get another start out of it. This can work for quite awhile, but you really need to be careful with the banging, otherwise you can crack one of the magnets inside the starter and then it won't work so well anymore.

You can replace the starter (although it's a shame to trade in the OE Motorcraft starter as a core because they are so well built compared to the Made-in-China junk you get back), or if you're mechanically inclined or know someone who is, you can buy the starter brush assembly (pictured above) for $20-30 and have it installed. Note the brush assembly isn't known to the guys at the parts store counters as being for Explorers, it's for a lot of Ford vehicles but they'd rather sell big-profit starters.

It'd probably a little easier to use sockets and extensions with a breaker bar/flex hander to remove the starter nuts, it's possible to do with regular wrenches (not an adjustable or crescent wrench though) but it might be pretty tough to bust the nuts loose with a regular wrench due to how short they are. You could always just buy one "long" pro-quality professional wrench to use for the job, they are longer than most regular wrenches and so give more leverage.

If you want to DIY it might be worth your while to get a ratchet and socket set for this job and future work, otherwise if you want to pay someone to do the work, it should take all of a few minutes to pop the starter off, remove the old brush assembly and install the new one, re-install the starter and done. Even less time to just put in a new starter, although the $100-150 price of the starter makes the $20-30 for a brush assembly (and keeping the Motorcraft starter) the better deal. If you buy the ~$60 starter from DB Electrical (which IS a cheap made-in-China one), it should make it a fairly easy DIY affair, just taking the old one out and putting the new one in.

 

[templescroll]

The reason it works is because the brushes wear out, and when they get to the end of their wear life, the spring that pushes them against the armature inside the starter is about at the end of it's tension, so banging the starter gets the brushes to contact the armature just a tiny bit more, the springs to push just a tiny bit more, and you'll get another start out of it. This can work for quite awhile, but you really need to be careful with the banging, otherwise you can crack one of the magnets inside the starter and then it won't work so well anymore.

You can replace the starter (although it's a shame to trade in the OE Motorcraft starter as a core because they are so well built compared to the Made-in-China junk you get back), or if you're mechanically inclined or know someone who is, you can buy the starter brush assembly (pictured above) for $20-30 and have it installed. Note the brush assembly isn't known to the guys at the parts store counters as being for Explorers, it's for a lot of Ford vehicles but they'd rather sell big-profit starters.

It'd probably a little easier to use sockets and extensions with a breaker bar/flex hander to remove the starter nuts, it's possible to do with regular wrenches (not an adjustable or crescent wrench though) but it might be pretty tough to bust the nuts loose with a regular wrench due to how short they are. You could always just buy one "long" pro-quality professional wrench to use for the job, they are longer than most regular wrenches and so give more leverage.

If you want to DIY it might be worth your while to get a ratchet and socket set for this job and future work, otherwise if you want to pay someone to do the work, it should take all of a few minutes to pop the starter off, remove the old brush assembly and install the new one, re-install the starter and done. Even less time to just put in a new starter, although the $100-150 price of the starter makes the $20-30 for a brush assembly (and keeping the Motorcraft starter) the better deal. If you buy the ~$60 starter from DB Electrical (which IS a cheap made-in-China one), it should make it a fairly easy DIY affair, just taking the old one out and putting the new one in.

okay, I will ask my mechanic to replace the brush assembly ONLY. TY so much! **Or I might buy a 'pro wrench' and DIY this summer

 

[Anime]

You can buy the brush assembly online if it will be some time before getting to it, VERY inexpensive compared to parts stores.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-Starte...Parts_Accessories&hash=item3a81266c58&vxp=mtr

Take it to your mechanic and just pay the labor to have it replaced.

If course, for $60, a new starter isn't bad either. Hard to say which way to go.

In any case, fix it one way or the other sooner rather than later. You only get so many freebies before it won't start no matter what. With an automatic transmission, you'll be stuck. Don't wait until it won't start and you have to get it towed to the shop!

 

[colintrax]

As to what Anime said, a cresent aint gonna work. I had to use a breaker bar on the top bolt, of course I didn't use any pb blaster (WD 40) and my ranger is older than me. With unknown miles (guessing 311,x..) so they were stuck pretty good.

Personally I'd suggest you go with a DB electrical starter. There's more to a starter than the brushes, and I highly doubt your mechanic is going to clean out the old one. There's several things that can wear out. If you don't off road then it should be fine with just getting new brushes. If your truck sees dirt, I'd highly recommend a new starter all together.

Either way, replace it soon. My starter only got 2 whacks out of it before it quit working. Then I had to bump start it for a month before I finally gave in and bought a new one
You don't have the option to bump start though

 

[RangerX]

Look around for an auto elec. business. There are some that all they do is rebuild starters and alternators.

 

[Anime]

I'd be wary of rebuilders these days. From what I've seen, most of them just sell the same cheap Made-in-China starters/alternators as the DB Electrical one, but at a HUGE markup. They no longer rebuild starters/alternators except as a last resort for those that can no longer be obtained new. Chances are also good that even if they do "rebuild" it, by the time they are done, all you really have is an OE housing with all the Made-in-China parts, the same as a new starter, for about the same price. You are often better off just buying a starter/alternator online for a lot less money.

I took my OE alternator in for a rebuild to the local auto electric business, the guy picked it up, took it back to the rebuild bench, then hit it with a huge hammer, brought it back to me, and told me it was damaged and couldn't be rebuilt. It worked fine before that, they obviously just didn't want to rebuild it and wanted to sell me a cheap starter at a big markup instead.

There are other parts of a starter that wear out, but in my experience, you can just pop off the end cap of these and replace the brush assembly, replace the end cap, and be good. I took mine completely apart and cleaned it all out, and it works like new, so it's good if you can do that, but it's not absolutely necessary.

In terms of the easiest thing to do, buying a new starter and just throwing it on is probably the easiest fix.