shmark

This is the second time this has happened. First time I thought it was a fluke and now it's a problem. I started the car - starter engaged, engine turned and fired, starter disengaged. But the starter continued to spin at high-speed, slowly spinning down until it stopped (making a fabulous sound in the parking deck I might add). Meanwhile I shut the engine down, wondering what the hell was that? When I realized it was the starter, first thought was great it's dead. But then I turned the key again and it worked perfectly, engaged, turned engine, engine fired up, disengaged and starter immediately shut down. No issues. I've had solenoids die before, but this is strange. I'm sure I'm looking at a replacement starter, but I've never heard of something like this before.

WallyP

If it were my car, I would just pull the starter and solenoid off and inspect them carefully. If I found no serious wear or damage, then I would clean and lubricate everything, put it back on and see what happened.

Chris Hansen

Mark, I had the same thing happen to me on the '68 Mustang my kids used to drive. In addition to the occasional boughts of extended firing, somehow that starter was so messed up that sometimes the car would somehow continue to run and idle normally when the key was turned off!

Chris

shmark

I just never heard of anything like the way this one acted. Normally when the solenoid fails the starter just spins, never engages. This one worked just fine, but it seems like the starter motor itself didn't stop spinning, like something in the armature didn't brake the motor. It just free-spun down, took about 15 seconds. I should mention the engine was running just fine before I shut it down, so it was definitely disengaged. So I tempted Murphy this morning by driving it again - such a beautiful day. Worked fine this morning. But I did park where where I can roll-start if I need to.

Mrmerlin

Follow Wallys advice, report back

Ninespub

Uh, Mark..........Have you checked for that cat lately? You know, the one that climbs on your hood? Perhaps it got caught in the starter.

Paul Barrera '91 $$$$4

shmark

Absolutely, going to dig into it this weekend. But I just couldn't resist the drive today, perfect weather and nice and cool. And I think these nice leather shoes can handle a push start if I have to.

Hey I haven't seen him around lately....

ZEUS+

The solenoid has two functions. One is to engage drive and the other is to supply current to the brushes. There are two windings for the drive, a pull in and a hold in. There are heavy duty contacts to supply the current to the brushes. Sounds like the contacts are starting to weld together.