help 95 grand caravan starter dead?

Hi,
My 1995 grand caravan starter is dead I THINK. I am not sure, i drove
the truck last night, was fine. Then went to go out this evening and it
would not start at all, no noise, lights/battery seem fine. then i
checked the connections and let the truck roll back few inches and now
it tries to start , but with only a clicking sound, it tries to engage
the fuel pump, but to now avail. how easy is it to replace the starter
and what tools do i need. if too hard, how much should it cost for a
repair shop to do it for me. Thanks Much, CR

wrote:
> Hi,
> My 1995 grand caravan starter is dead I THINK. I am not sure, i drove
> the truck last night, was fine. Then went to go out this evening and it
> would not start at all, no noise, lights/battery seem fine. then i
> checked the connections and let the truck roll back few inches and now
> it tries to start , but with only a clicking sound, it tries to engage
> the fuel pump, but to now avail. how easy is it to replace the starter
> and what tools do i need. if too hard, how much should it cost for a
> repair shop to do it for me. Thanks Much, CR


Hi...

Sure sounds like the battery to me...

Take care.

Ken

Yeah, except the lights stay strong and seem to be fine, so i dunno.
Maybe i will get a new battery 1st and see what happens.

well, maybe it is the battery, i will take it to be checked after work
tomorrow, will see. I really dont want to spend alot of money right
now on it, but if it does need a starter i will get one, are they hard
to put in? never done that before, only solinoids and alternators.
ColRadar wrote:
> Yeah, except the lights stay strong and seem to be fine, so i dunno.
> Maybe i will get a new battery 1st and see what happens.

On 13 Sep 2006 16:49:06 -0700, "ColRadar" > wrote:

>
>Yeah, except the lights stay strong and seem to be fine, so i dunno.
>Maybe i will get a new battery 1st and see what happens. <snip>

Sounds like a typical Nippondenso starter ailment to
me...bad/burned/dirty contacts in the solenoid. Don't waste money on
a new battery until you check this out.

The soloniod is mounted as part of the starter sounds like it is bad. Give
it a wack with a hammer (A small One) while trying to start it

its the starter

I concur with the solenoid diagnosis. I just went through the same
thing with the ND starter on my '95 Eagle. It would click when you
keyed it (once per attempt) and not engage the starter. Sometimes it
would engage the starter, and then apparently the contact would break,
resulting in a short starter cycle and it wouldn't start.

Dismount the starter and open up the solenoid. There's nothing rocket
science about this. Two or three small screws and the cover comes off,
and you'll be looking at a plunger with a big head on it. On opposite
sides of the case there are two contacts that pass through the case.
The contacts wear from the electrical contact over the years. I went
to a local electrical rebuilder and bought the contacts for a buck a
piece. My starter hasn't misbehaved in several weeks now.

sqdancerLynn wrote:
> The soloniod is mounted as part of the starter sounds like it is bad. Give
> it a wack with a hammer (A small One) while trying to start it

On 15 Sep 2006 18:57:17 -0700, "bruce" > wrote:

>I concur with the solenoid diagnosis. I just went through the same
>thing with the ND starter on my '95 Eagle. It would click when you
>keyed it (once per attempt) and not engage the starter. Sometimes it
>would engage the starter, and then apparently the contact would break,
>resulting in a short starter cycle and it wouldn't start.
>
>Dismount the starter and open up the solenoid. There's nothing rocket
>science about this. Two or three small screws and the cover comes off,
>and you'll be looking at a plunger with a big head on it. On opposite
>sides of the case there are two contacts that pass through the case.
>The contacts wear from the electrical contact over the years. I went
>to a local electrical rebuilder and bought the contacts for a buck a
>piece. My starter hasn't misbehaved in several weeks now. <snip>

This has been a continual problem, as I've said before, with
Nippondenso starters since the mid-1970s, when they first ripped off
Chrysler's patents to built their version. Now, oddly enough,
Chrysler's using the poseurs!

The same thing happened on my 1994 GC years back. It was the contacts.
I had the rebuilder do it for me including the re & re. The only thing
they did more than replacing the contacts was to put the plunger on a
lathe and resurface the contact surface of the plunger so that it was
smooth and shiny (not rough and pitted as it WAS).

After that my starter never failed. And I had plenty of warning that
it was happening, so I had it fixed before I got stranded.

On 15 Sep 2006 18:57:17 -0700, "bruce" > wrote:

>I concur with the solenoid diagnosis. I just went through the same
>thing with the ND starter on my '95 Eagle. It would click when you
>keyed it (once per attempt) and not engage the starter. Sometimes it
>would engage the starter, and then apparently the contact would break,
>resulting in a short starter cycle and it wouldn't start.
>
>Dismount the starter and open up the solenoid. There's nothing rocket
>science about this. Two or three small screws and the cover comes off,
>and you'll be looking at a plunger with a big head on it. On opposite
>sides of the case there are two contacts that pass through the case.
>The contacts wear from the electrical contact over the years. I went
>to a local electrical rebuilder and bought the contacts for a buck a
>piece. My starter hasn't misbehaved in several weeks now.
>
>sqdancerLynn wrote:
>> The soloniod is mounted as part of the starter sounds like it is bad. Give
>> it a wack with a hammer (A small One) while trying to start it