Almost had a truck BBQ

Stroked68

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My gf went to get somethin to eat in her early 99. She noticed that starter was stickin. Finally it stopped. She went in, then came back out and truck wouldnt start. Only clicked. So she calls me, luckily she was only a few miles away. I get there and we smell that nasty electrical burnt smell. Im lookin frantically everywhere. I get down and look at the starter and its smokin! :rant. I frantically try to disconnect the batteries. After alot of twisting and pulling, got the battery cables off. And luckily a good customer of ours was nearby and happened to be walkin by us and helped. He had some pliers so I could get the last cable loose. Would have been a very bad day. There were cars parked nexted to her truck so they probably wouldve been burnt up too. I got the starter off. Are these things worth rebuilding or should I just get a new or rebuilt one. I went to O'reillys and they had one in stock with lifetime warranty for $166 bucks. Just the solenoid was like $44. Not including might as well check the brushes in the starter. This truck has 180,*** on it. Im thinkin just bite the bullet and buy the lifetime warranty starter. Has a core on it too.

My cousins 89 Centurion F350 Bronco with the 7.3 IDI actually caught on fire cause the starter got stuck. Its waiting for a total restore right now. Im wondering if I should start thinkin of doin this to my 99? Its got over 277k on it and I dont know if the starter has ever been replaced. You'd think it has but dont know how long these starters last. Still sounds good and starts everytime.
 

BIG JOE

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NEW would be the Best, But the $166 Rebuilt route isn't bad either. The Lifetime warrenty makes it nice.. rebuilding it yerself... cuz it Smoked it's self ? yer call.

Rebuilt Starter & Soliniod would be my .02. Good time to clean-up the Batt cables, clamps'n posts too ?

Joe
 
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JLDickmon

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only trouble with rebuilding it yourself is finding the parts..

no one carries that stuff anymore..
 

Stroked68

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Well I had my dad give me a second opinion on the status of the starter and he said its junk. So looks like goin to get a new starter. And it was a rebuilt one. I will have to check the charging system and batteries too since maybe its getting too low of voltage which could cause the starter to go bad.
 

Stroked68

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only trouble with rebuilding it yourself is finding the parts..

no one carries that stuff anymore..

Yea I found that out when I was rebuilding my alternator. I took it to auto electric here in town. They rebuild all our alts and generators on tractors and vehicles. They had to put new slip rings on the armature. I accidently broke the brush/regulator assembly. I tried ALL the autoparts places and they only sold the WHOLE alternator. I got my alt rebuilt with new brushes, regulator, bearings and slip rings for $54 with our discount. And the time for my dad and I to put it back on. Im glad the alt on my diesel is sooo easy to get to. 2min and it was off!:sweet
 

Stroked68

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NEW would be the Best, But the $166 Rebuilt route isn't bad either. The Lifetime warrenty makes it nice.. rebuilding it yerself... cuz it Smoked it's self ? yer call.

Rebuilt Starter & Soliniod would be my .02. Good time to clean-up the Batt cables, clamps'n posts too ?

Joe

Yea Im gonna check the charging system on it and make sure its all up to parr. I noticed the batt posts and cables needed cleaning badly. I'll gitrdone this weekend. Shes sooooooooooooo lucky to have a bf like me right Joe??:cool::sly
 

BIG JOE

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Yea Im gonna check the charging system on it and make sure its all up to parr. I noticed the batt posts and cables needed cleaning badly. I'll gitrdone this weekend. Shes sooooooooooooo lucky to have a bf like me right Joe??:cool::sly

Yep..:rolleyes::rolleyes::innocent:rolleyes::horn

;)
 
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DaveBen

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I'll be willing to bet some $$ that your (her) batteries are just about gone with the heavy loading that the starter put in them. If you notice anything out of the normal, get new batteries. Good Luck Stroked!

Dave
 

Stroked68

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I'll be willing to bet some $$ that your (her) batteries are just about gone with the heavy loading that the starter put in them. If you notice anything out of the normal, get new batteries. Good Luck Stroked!

Dave

Yea def will! The batt connections were really nasty. I dont know how old those batteries are and who knows what the alt is like. I wont know till the weekend. I will keep posting on what I find.
 

Stroked68

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Has anyone used those optima batteries? She doesnt run any other extra lighting or anything like that. I eventually could be interested in optima's since I will have work/utility lights and a diff stereo in mine.

Also her truck ALWAYS has the lights on when its running. I hate that! Any way I can disable that?
 

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