924Board.org

[924guy]

Sooo, I fixed it.... momentarily...

after cleaning up the solenoid and reassembling (the piston was stuck pretty good, cleaned, lubed and it seemed towork okay, but was still "sticking" a little,) i bench tested it.

with power to term 30, a ground lead from the starter body to the negative battery terminal.
Now, if i add 12v to term 50 i get the bendix engaging only, no starter spin.

if i apply 12v to term 15a (aka 16) only, nada, nothing, though i did get some output voltage when term 50 had juice.

applying 12v to both 15a and 50 got me the bendix engaging and the starter spinning.

So with knowledge in hand I reinstalled the starter, but with some concerned about the 15a voltage leak, but what the heck... It worked, spun a few times nicely. then a i see a bit a smoke up by the ballast resistors just about the the time the engine is about to catch (long time no start, sputters coughs, VRROO////pstfff..) and i Kill the key, as smoke is bad...

starter refused to cooperate any more after that, I think the solenoid piston got itself stuck again. the solenoid term 15a is acting as a reversing circuit. Im still not clear if this supposed to happen, it appears to me that it requires voltage to close the starter motor switch, and spin, but then it also look to supply voltage to the ignition transistors. im still confused about this. But regardless, the solenoid is leaking voltage when its not supposed too.

Obviously the simple fix here is replace the whole unit and be done with it. But its become a challenge to me. the motor itself seems good. i will have to source a new solenoid at the very least. And find a current flow diagram for one as well, i think the answers i seek will become clear if i can find that one...


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Eric
78 924
82 931 SE "smokey"
99' VehiCross
Y2K Honda Insight
http://www.cardomain.com/id/924Guy
Performance by Pasha

[Smoothie]

Sounds like there's corrosion on the inaccesible innerds of the solenoid where the switch contacts reside. -And the 30 switch just happens to be worse off than the 15a switch, so you were probably getting voltage to spin the motor through the smaller wires on the 15a side (and 50), which would account for the smokiness. The ignition switch and related wiring might also be due for a look-over..
In this situation, I'd have replaced just the solenoid. It could be found in the $35-$50 range last time I looked several years ago.

Yes, the starters themselves are pretty robust. My original one is still good. I have that, and a second one that I bought many years ago - they just get swapped back and forth with solenoids only being cleaned or replaced as needed.
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"..it's made in Germany. You know the Germans always make good stuff."


'82 924T, US version, dark green metallic, 5 speed Audi 016G gearbox