Burning Up starter motors

[kgkmd80]

1983 Pininfarina Spider 2000:

I'm on my third starter motor in two years. I replaced the original one about 8K miles ago with a rebuild, that one lasted about 8 months. Replaced it with a new Motor 4 months ago. Last week that new one just failed, no other problems/ issues with the car, anyone have suggestions?
Thanks,
Kevin

[bradartigue]

Are you cranking a lot to start the car? If so you are wearing out your starter...but even then they tend to last longer than a year or two. I'm wondering if it is staying engaged too long when you start the car, does the motor drag somewhat after you start it, then come to life?

Bad power to the starter will also cause a lot of strain on the solenoid. Check the back of the ignition switch (brown wire) for burn marks. Check the leads connecting to the starter, test the power to it.

[DieselSpider]

Is the motor itself failing or just the solenoid on the starter? Starters are only meant to be run for less than 10 seconds at a time so if you have been having hard starting issues you could end up going through starters more quickly.

I just went through starter solenoids failing on mine with the last one giving up the ghost after 6 months and it traced back to low voltage coming from the ignition switch. I did the brown wire fix along with cleaned up the connections feeding into and out of the ignition switch along with moving the solenoid wire from the starter to a 40 amp relay to provide power to the solenoid via a connection directly from the main battery cable.

I first verified that I had 12.5 volts at the main cable and ensured that the connections at the battery were clean and tight. Now I have 12.5 volts to the ignition switch along with coming out of it and the lights are brighter too. Starting load on the ignition switch is now reduced by about 20 to 30 amps, the starter solenoid operates without getting warm and the starter turns over much faster now that the solenoid is getting enough current to solidly close the contact inside of it. Before it would barely engage the starter drive and sometime the drive would slip off the flywheel gear since the solenoid was not getting enough current to hold it. I bought the starter locally from Oreilly Auto Parts so I would have one with a Lifetime warranty. Hopefully when the time comes many years from now to replace the latest new starter and solenoid it won't cost me a dime.

[fiatfactory]

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[vandor]

When you say you replaced it with a new one, do you mean a brand new unit, or another rebuilt unit? I have not seen new stock type starters in a while. The rebuilt ones are often poor quality, the rebuilders only replace whatever is absolutely necessaty to get it working again.
I highly recommend the brand new gear reduction starters sold by both Allison's and us.

[v6spider]

A poor engine to body ground will cause the starter to work hard as well as cause your clutch cable to fail. I've also had a battery cable that was Corroded internally that caused the starter to run weak.. I replaced the battery cable from the trunk to engine compartment with 0 ought welding lead cable.. Soldered ends the whole nine yards.. Works very well!


Rob