Is it just loose or do I need a new starter?
Thanks!
Most likely, a bad solenoid. You don’t need to replace the entire starter, just the solenoid.
A starter motor is exactly that, a motor. There are moving parts inside. If one of the parts is sticking, a shot to the housing may be breaking it loose.
It usually only works for a while. As explained here :
Starter motor problems usually are indicated by the following symptom: Turn the key to the START position and you hear a loud click, or sometimes you hear nothing. The headlights are bright and don’t dim when you turn the key to START, and everything else electrical seems to work fine. It could be a bad starter neutral switch or a bad key switch but about 99% of the time it’s a bad starter or starter solenoid. Here is the procedure for checking out a starter motor and its solenoid.
Problems in a starter motor normally involve a “bad spot” on the commutator, the electrical section of the armature that contacts the brushes. They get dirty and worn down. The brushes sometimes wear out but not normally. Open circuits can occur in the armature or in stator windings. You could fix these problems but the normal procedure is to replace the starter with a rebuilt. If the starter motor armature just happens to stop on a “bad spot” the circuit is open and the starter won’t turn. Sometimes you can “rock” the engine by hand (be careful - make sure the ignition switch is off) or in a standard transmission car you can put it in gear and “rock” the car by pushing it forward or backward a few inches - this can move the starter motor off the “bad spot” and get you on your way, but it’s a crap shoot as to when it will happen again. Sometimes rapping the starter with a hammer can make temporary contact where the contact was flaky, but you can do more harm to the starter than good if ya hit it too hard!!
That’s generally poor economy, if it’s even possible on any given model of vehicle.
The solenoid and “bendix” mechanism are now part of the starter, as opposed to bygone days when they were distinctly separate parts from the starter motor itself and easily swapped out on their own.
The poor economy part is that if the starter has been used so many times that one part has worn out, the rest of the parts are just waiting to fail as well.
You can probably have the starter rebuilt for about $50 - at least that’s what I paid the last time around.
Reminds me of my first car - a 1980 Mustang with a straight 6. Some of the teeth on the ring gear that the starter catches on got stripped/broken once when I was starting it on a VERY cold day (this was not in nunavut). So, every once in a while, the starter would end up there when I shut it off. I would have to get out, pop the hood, and manually advance the engine by gripping the fan blades and heaving. That sucked.
This is a pretty common mode of failure for starter motors. A lot of times when you get a rebuilt one, there’ll be a big dent in the case where the last guy was whacking it to get it to work.
Not necessarily… although I don’t have any idea what my current Dodge setup is, my 1995 Ford Ranger had the solenoid mounted in the engine bay, up near the battery on the right side.
However, my old 1976 Suburban had the solenoid integrated with the starter.
In the case of the Ranger, I got it at 50,000 miles, and replaced the solenoid at about 150,000 for about $15, and ran it another 70,000 miles… never had to fool with the rest of the starting system other than the batter.
Also, when you’re whacking it with the hammer/wrench/etc… you’re generally unsticking the solenoid, not making the motor work.
Ford is bizarre-- they kept using external solenoids for about two decades after the rest of the car makers switched. I suppose it is nice if the solenoid actually does go out, but otherwise it’s just sort of a car-thief hotwire convenience terminal.
My experience with an '88 Chevy was a broken tooth on gear(s) as Nunavut Boy describes above.
That usually causes grinding, as opposed to “no-crank.”