re: testing starters

[Dana Loomis <dloomis@domain.elided>]

>The easiest and quickest way I have found to check a starter is to 
>hook up a GOOD set of jumper cables from a running car with a good battery.  
>If your Spider starts, the starter is good.  If not, you either have a 
>battery or charging system problem.  

This is one of my favorite tricks, too, but it recently failed me.  

The first time I tried to start up the 1750 I had put in the Super, the
starter wouldn't crank the motor.  Figuring the battery had run down after
months of sitting, I pulled my truck into the garage and jjumped it the way
Skip describes: the Alfa started right up on the first crank.  After the
test drive I put the charger on the battery and left it all night,
expecting it to be fine in the morning.  In the morning it still wouldn't
crank, so I tried a known good battery.  No better!  I began to think that
maybe the successful jump start was a lucky coincidence and that the
problem must really have been the starter, solenoid, or ignition switch.
Tried jumping the solenoid with a heavy wire to bypass the switch, but
still no crank.  Then I bit the bullet and pulled the starter. On the
bench, it behaved perfectly: the solenoid fired, the pinion jumped forward,
and the motor spun.  Fine, but this test doesn't load the starter, so it's
not very realistic.  For good measure, I opened up the starter; everything
looked fine inside, so I cleaned and lubed, than put it back together and
back on the car.  Still no start.  

There was only one more part of the system that I hadn't really tested, and
that was the ground circuit.  Perhaps I had forgotten to reinstall the
ground strap from the engine to the chassis.  No, it was there, so, I ran
one jumper cable from the engine block to the chassis and turned the key.
Ecco!  Started right up.  I pulled the engine-chassis ground off again and
used a wire wheel to clean  both ends of the strap and the place on the
body it attaches to.  Did the battery ground cable, too, for good measure.
After that, the car started on the first crank with its own battery, and it
has been starting without fail every time for the last week.  

My guess is that the extra jolt from the battery of a running car allowed
the Alfa's poor ground connections to be overcome so the starter could
crank, but the Alfa's battery alone couldn't do the job.  The moral of the
story: check the easy, simple things first.

Dana Loomis
NC USA

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