So I got a little excited and tried taking the nut off the starter to hook up the power wire and the stud started t turning with the nut. Am I up the creek or can I turn it back in? Sent from my moto z4 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You want to give us some kind of idea what kind of starter it is and what's it on Sent from my SM-J737T using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Chances are if you try to retighten the it will just turn the stud the other way. What I would do is take the starter off, carefully cut the nut off without damaging the thread. Clean up the thread so a new nut would wind on as normal. then bench test the starter to see if it is ok. If you have barely turned the siezed nut you should be ok.
Can you remove the cover, and look at what's going on? That's how I'd approach the problem. And you'll probably find that the stud is a bolt, with a square head or some tangs, and it's slipping on the thing that is supposed to keep it from turning.
Add in what year of engine and what it originally came out of if you know. Better info gets far better answers far faster. A photo of the starter wouldn't hurt either as then we know what page we are on and can give the right answer.
The engine is mid 80s the starter and trans are early-mid 70s Ford. Lots of swapmeet parts, and parts people had laying about so making a lot of scientific wild-*** guesses
I can imagine exactly what the starter looks like...but keep in mind folks, this is NOT his starter, this is a picture I took off the internet, of the starter I think he has, based on his description.
I have worked on a few Fords that the stud was broken and the lock nut was used to hold the cable on.
That's what I would do..also I have used a pair of vice grips clamped onto the very end to the threads, and pulled it hard upward (outward) while either trying to tighten the jam nut or to get the cable nut off.
Throw it away and get one of the new permanent magnet starters off a Explorer or a V6 or V8 Tbird. Smaller and lighter, takes up less space and is stronger. It has a solenoid on top like a Chevy starter, you wire it the same way with the hot lead going to the fenderwell solenoid and the exciter wire going to the hot lead.
If the starter is good I'd want to use it before throwing it away. Maybe if @BamaMav is buyin'. The stud connector does need to be physically & electrically tight, a whole metric ****load of current flows through that, maybe 100 amps DC.
And the insulators need to be in place, if either is missing or damaged it will be a direct short to ground
Would probably still be good then. I spun the lug on my tractors starter once before I noticed it as well. I took it apart and had to re attach the braided strap that broke on the inside. Been many years but did teach me a lesson. Lol
I paid $10 at pull a part for the last one I bought. I’ll never use the old style again if I can get the new style. Just the 5# or so lighter it is makes it worth it, not to mention how much better it turns the motor over.
This problem is also common on solenoids. The main reason is that the cheapskates who specify the materials decide that a copper cable terminal is best held onto a copper alloy stud / bolt with a steel nut.... Which rusts, exacerbated by the dissimilar metals present. So it will often cause the problem Topher has, or the extra resistance will cause excess heat and burn the bakelite around the connection. Or, the whole shebang turns in the bakelite and busts it up into small pieces. I bought some br*** "half nuts" which are the same dimensionally as the steel originals to replace them. I use a bit of silicone grease when ***embling.
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