Another starter problem

We had a cold snap a few days back, and my starter barely turned over. The car so far starts, but barely turns over. I did the knee jerk, must be the battery, and put in a new one. No change, it barely turns over, but starts. Three more starts, and I have a day off. Then I will go to the auto store, and have them put the tester on it. Any thoughts in the interim?

Thanks,

Tom

Either bad starter or bad cables/connection.

Do you know the correct battery cable lengths ?

You can buy ready made cables if you state what car it is for.

Yes, I tried the local parts store. They offered "this will fit, in lengths from 35 to more than 80 to inches, but no actual knowledge of the correct length"
I will did when I get a chance, other problems, not car, took over this morning.

My starter had been acting up recently, but at lunch today it finally bit the dust. AAA came and crawled under it while I turned the key, and got it to start one last time. I drove it straight home, and it wouldn't restart.

I need to drive the car to work tomorrow, so I shopped for a starter that was in stock--I ended up with a "premium" remanufactured Carquest brand with lifetime replacement warranty. Last time I changed a starter, parts store rebuilds with lifetime replacement warranty just meant a lifetime of replacing starters (one of mine lasted two weeks, and I had a buddy who installed one that was bad right out of the box). To get one that would actually hold up, you had to go to a rougher part of town and go to a very old, very dirty building named Al's Alternators or Sam's Starters or something like that and the old guy who ran the place would tell you about the race car he built in 1962 while selling a 90-day part that really would last forever.

But that was years ago.

So I now have a rebuilt starter that cranks the car over a lot faster than it did before it showed failure symptoms. The core charge was $22. Is it worth keeping until I find some old guy to rebuild it as a spare for next time, or are parts store rebuilds more durable now?

Next time, and I am sure there will be a next time, get a new geared starter from a speed shop. They are a little more expensive, but they last a long time. If you can not get one of those, get a Corvette starter.

i am already not impressed with my new starter, but it's getting me to work. i am already considering picking up a replacement.

Geared starters are so good! Makes a big difference

Fred Kiehl wrote:

Next time, and I am sure there will be a next time, get a new geared starter from a speed shop. They are a little more expensive, but they last a long time. If you can not get one of those, get a Corvette starter.

The parts store starter shows two different part numbers. One sedan and a different wagon starter. Is the Vette starter one-size-fits-all?

All of the starters will fit. The only difference is that some of them are for higher compression engines, and are heavier duty. The Corvette starter is for a higher compression engine, so it is heavy duty. You could even use a big block starter. There are two sets of mounting holes in all of them for different size flexplates/flywheels. The B bodies all have the larger diameter flexplates. The 305 (LO3) has a different starter than the 350 (LO5). The LT1 and L99 may, or may not be the same as the one for the LO5.