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bad starter over night...


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so the last weekend i took the mj to do some chores, it worked fine as usual and was parked for the las 3 days. this afternoon i try to turn it on but the starter is too heavy, my first diagnostic was that the battery was discharged (i may have left something on) tried another know-to-be-good battery but nopé, same thing, it tries to hard to start then it catches up and runs, next step is drop the starter to see what´s wrong but, how does this happen? can the started run fine and then $#!& on you next day?

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so the last weekend i took the mj to do some chores, it worked fine as usual and was parked for the las 3 days. this afternoon i try to turn it on but the starter is too heavy, my first diagnostic was that the battery was discharged (i may have left something on) tried another know-to-be-good battery but nopé, same thing, it tries to hard to start then it catches up and runs, next step is drop the starter to see what´s wrong but, how does this happen? can the started run fine and then $#!& on you next day?
This isn't unusual. Can you jump the starter solenoid to see if it cranks okay that way? Or remove and bench test?

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When this happens gradually, it's usually because of crud from 30 years of oil leaks getting inside the starter. If it happened suddenly I'd be looking at the connections first. Refresh the connections at the starter and battery and check voltage at the starter when cranking.

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X2 on poor connections. Starters do slow down over time, but usually they either work or they don't. I've had bad connections "out of the blue" pretty frequently.

Recently about an hour into a road trip I pulled over to take a photo and then couldn't start it. Everything looked mostly fine, but all I got was a whirr-clunck then just the relay clicking. Someone else pulled off and I asked for a boost but it didn't help. We ended up bump starting it on a tow strap. I figured it was the starter so I drove straight to a parts store, but first I picked up one of the penci-sharpener style terminal cleaners, and went to town. The problem hasn't recurred. 

I also once had a no-crank no-boost in a hotel parking caused by a loose starter cable. Somehow the nut that held it onto the solenoid had backed halfway off. It had worked fine the rest of the trip and wasn't loose like it had just jiggled itself off, and didn't look recent either, so I don't know what's up with that. 

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1 hour ago, cruiser54 said:

How much oil is coating that starter? 

 

like, a lot...

 

all conections have been checked, no loose wires, the only way to get it to crank as before is connecting the 2 batteries together...

 

i had a similar problem years ago with a ford escort, starter failed overnight, turned out to be worn carbon brushes... i´ll drop the starter next saturday...

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