Starter problems

[kevinhunter1]

We bought a 1981 fiat spider 20000 last week . The starter will not work if the engine gets hot,the only sound you get is a click in the console area . The starter will work when the engine is cool. Once the starter would turn over but the bendix would not engage,it engaged on the third attempt. The car was not used much and we suspected the battery at first so I cleaned the battery terminals, still no luck. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[maytag]

us old folks remember when this was very common. (I'm not really THAT old.... but I do remember the 70's pretty well....)

When that solenoid piggy-backin on the starter gets old, they start to really hate heat. You can sometimes make-up for this by supplying more amps to it, as I'm sure you did when you cleaned terminals, etc.

Make sure your battery is in good condition. It helps if you put a meter on the battery to see what sort of voltage drop (and rebound) you get when you try to crank it. Then make sure the cables are good, and that the connections are clean and tight.

once you;ve done that, if the problem persists, it's time for a new starter. I would recommend one of the newer technology, gear-reduction units, like the one sold by Allison's.

[courtenay]

You might also want to check out this thread...
http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... art#p76617