[SOLVED] '94 Hijet S110P Won't Start

HAHAHA!
I love it! Those have got to be some high energy eggs!
Limestone

 

If only! We actually have way too many eggs currently though, not sure we could handle it!

Unfortunately neither of my thoughts turned out to be correct. I came back and they said the battery took 2 minutes until it was fully charged. And the starter did the exact same thing it did for me - extended with a loud spin and click but did not spin. No idea why it was working and then didn't.

One thing to note is that the positive battery terminal was bent. In my rush to get out and drive the truck I forgot I never came up with a way to properly secure it. I had tried to jerry-rig the screw hook method for the old battery, but it wasn't a good fit and at some point I took it off completely and forgot about it. I don't think this could have caused my issue but I suppose anything is possible at this point.

I'm not sure what to try next - I suppose I can try to get the starter working again. Worst case scenario I will try to find someone locally who can take a look at it. If I can get the starter to work outside the car I want to try to hook it to the battery not connected to the car to see if it will at least turn the flywheel that way, which would point to an electrical component of the car being the culprit.

The guy at autozone seemed to think the teeth on the starter were severely damaged, but it seems to be that's just how they are shaped. Regardless the new one should have worked. I posted a picture of the flywheel on the previous page - does it look damaged to the point where it needs replaced?

 

From the picture, it doesn't look too damaged to me... It's important that the terminal connections are very good; any resistance at these connections translates into big voltage drops under load, but misleading good voltage readings with no load. I'd get an Auto Electrical rebuild business to check the starter windings out. They put it on a "growler" to do this, whereas the auto parts place may not offer this service.

 

I agree with Roadster. When I was at the heavy equipment shop, every once in a while we'd get a bad starter. We had an electrical shop, that was second to none with this kinda stuff! As a matter of fact, last year I took my starter off my Mini to them, and they opened it up and found one of the three brushes burnt out, and the other two working, but worn, so for $60.00 bucks, I had them go through it and rebuild it, like it was new! They will always have a new sounding zing to them, after you have it done! It's worth it! The key is to find the right rebuild shop! I sent my neighbor to the same shop a few weeks back, for his 5 yr. old zero turn. Online he could get a new starter, for $135.00 bucks, when he took his in they told him, that it would be better to order him a new one through their suppliers for $90.00 bucks, instead of rebuilding his! Again, a good honest shop!
Limestone

 

Thanks for the continued advice guys. I believe I've located a shop and if I can't figure anything out this weekend I'm going to call first thing Monday morning. If I can't figure it out soon after that I'm going to just have to have it towed to my mechanic because at this point having the truck is more important to me than the money I'm going to save trying to figure it out myself.

 

On older Chevies, the solenoid had a disk in it which was the contact to the motor. It would get pitted or corroded, and didn’t make good contact. You could open up the solenoid, and flip it over and teh starter would work again. I’ve never had to look a the one on the Hijet.

 

Thanks for the tip Jigs but unfortunately the housing on my old solenoid broke when I was trying to get the one rusted on screw off (held on the wire coming out of the motor).

 

It lives! Probably a bit embarrassing, but I took it to an auto electric repair place and the only issue was I was missing 2/4 springs. When I first opened the new one the back came off and springs went flying. I found 2 and wasn't sure if there were supposed to be 2 or 4, but I only noticed 2 spring marked indentations on the red plastic piece that sits over top of them. I kind of realized that was probably the issue when I got home, because he took apart the old starter where I was there and the parts that the springs press against were completely worn, which heavily indicated the starter was indeed my problem the whole time. The trick was, however, to use the old gear in the new starter, so I'll take credit for that one! For whatever reason the gear they have did not work for my truck/flywheel. Hopefully if anyone else has this problem they can try the same solution.

Came home, put the starter in, hooked up the battery, got the spark plugs back in and she fired up. Took a little while which was a little concerning, but maybe just because it had been sitting around? I'm still going to try to do some tuning up as long as everything continues to be good for now. Bought the fuel pressure regular and a tach to put in partly so I can get the idle right, so hopefully all goes well. Thanks again for all the help guys, glad I have my truck back!

 

Great! Glad that worked out for you...

 

Finally, took some months, but you made it, congrats. Thanks for reporting back, it is always important to get the details how a problem was solved, good for future similar problem cases.