More starter questions

[wysmith95]

I know I've posted a ton of questions about starters lately, but I've got some strange stuff happening now.

The Oldsmobile had a bad battery today, so had to pull my truck up the driveway with another truck to be able to bump start it (starter is still out). Then my buddy drove it down to our job site and parked it on a hill to be able to bump start it again (yeah, I know it's not that great for it). He drove it back to the house and said it died about halfway there on flat ground leaving no way to bump start it again. He looked under the truck and found a loose black wire hanging from somewhere near the starter. Reconnected it, starter started working again. He stopped to get gas, shut it down and was able to start it again. Then he drives somewhere else and finds it won't start. The "loose" wire is still connected and tight, but the starter will not go. Pulled it up another hill, start, brought it home. It continued to start just fine driving it around town a little bit later. The starter is actually working, but only intermittently. Should I just go ahead and replace the starter or is there something else I should check first seeing as the starter works just fine when it engages. No unusual rattling, grinding, etc.

Sorry for the long post, just trying to get to the bottom of this. Any ideas anyone?

[JSchuricht]

It could be the starter but could also be somewhere else in the circuit. Next time it decides not to start, crawl underneath with a multimeter and check that you have 12v at the starter on the big cable and 12v on the small wire when the key is turned to the start position. If your lacking power on either cable, start chasing them back to find the source of the problem.

[madpogue]

Um, WHERE did your buddy reconnect that wire?

[wysmith95]

Apparently on the only open stud on the starter, but I will verify that when I get off work later.

[madpogue]

What was on the end of the wire? A ring terminal? Blade terminal? Something else? How was he able to reconnect it and tighten it; did he find a nut?

[wysmith95]

Originally Posted by madpogue

What was on the end of the wire? A ring terminal? Blade terminal? Something else? How was he able to reconnect it and tighten it; did he find a nut?

Not sure what sort of connector, I get off work here in about an hour to go look at it. Yes, he found a nut that fit the stud floating around the toolbox.

[wysmith95]

It was the smaller positive wire that was loose. After pulling the old starter this afternoon, we discovered someone ghetto rigged a GM gas starter on to it. I threw a Denso unit in and it cranks over like crazy now. I also had to clear up some corrosion on the starting relay that was not visible until we removed the wires to check them. All is good now!