Bad starter possibly?

[ilyafish]

So if some of you remember, i had an issue of my bus not shutting off when we got back from our tour.  Eventually it did shut off.  I had been having problems with my batteries dying and thought it was the veggie system.

I went to turn my bus on 2 weeks after that, and after connecting the jumper cables and giving it a bit of a charge, i flipped the power cutoff switch (next to the batteries) to 'on'.  immediately i heard what sounded like a fan turning on in the engine compartment, only to find out that it was the starter going.

After tapping it a few times with a 2x4 it stopped, and i was able to get more of a charge and start the bus up.  My bus has been sitting for a few weeks now and i went to start it up, and same issue.  Except the 2x4 no longer works, and i cant get it fired up as the batteries dont have enough of a charge to compensate for the starter turning on when its not supposed to.

I am not sure if this is a bad starter, or electrical issues, but basically as soon as i turn the power on, you hear the starter kick on, and theres no stopping it.  So i am assuming that that is why my bus wouldnt shut off when we got home.

Any help would be appreciated.  I think im going to be visiting luke at US Coach pretty soon haha

[Sojourner]

As usual, an already weak battery will help the starter's solenoid contact to produce heavier arcing than normal. So now you may have welded contacts to cause the starter to run soon as you turn on master switch. When hit the starter before...you cause it to break the welded contacts.
Keep in mind, after replace the starter's solenoid....you can have the same problem later if you continue starting with weak battery or weak wiring or weak connection. A battery state of charge should never be less than 12.7 volts at 70°F (colder the weaker) before cranking.

Luke's crew will determined your problem after a few checking with the meter with load & no load test.

Check Battery Condition (left click)


FWIW

Sojourn for Christ, Gerald

[Dallas]

Like Jerry says, it sounds like you have a bad solenoid, possibly caused by cranking with low battery voltage.

However.......

Those monster Delco starters are kind of neat in the way that they were engineered.
You can pull the solenoid off, take it apart and dismantle it. When you get to the copper disk where the contact point is, sand it down and turn it around, the solenoid will be good for another 100,000 miles. The 100,000 mile figure assumes you are going to be using fully charged batteries, of course, not something half dead or poorly charged.

Of course, this assumes you don't mind getting greasy/dirty, and have plenty of money to spend, and don't mind hefting an 80 lb starter in and out of it's living quarters.

One caveat here... get yourself a really good battery tester, something like a refractometer. Anything less is about as worthless as trying to push a chain or playing pool with a piece of rope. Those battery specific gravity testers you get from the local Auto parts store are nearly worthless.

Another point to check.. Take apart and clean every ground and positive connection there is between the batteries and the starter, the engine and the starter, and the engine and the bulkhead.

Good Luck,

Dallas

[OneLapper]

For what it's worth, I had the original starter rebuilt because I still had a starting problem (slow cranking) after installing two new batteries.  Then I had the spare starter (bus came with tons of spares) rebuilt and installed that.  Still had problems starting.  I eventually fixed the starting issues by making and installing new battery cables from 00 wire.  I replaced ALL of the positive and neg cables with new, custom made cables using terminal lugs crimped on using my hydraulic hose fitting crimper.  I wrapped the ends of the pos cables with red electrical tape (1" wide), then used clear double wall heat shrink tubing over the tape to create a waterproof cable.

In the end, the ground cable tab was loose on the original, uncovered, cable that went from the bulkhead to starter to block.

The engine spins over much faster with the new cables.  I could have saved the $200 (twice) because the starters were probably fine.

Mark

4106

[buswarrior]

I have seen the battery cables on a dozen 6 year old Prevost in a big fleet rot through with the creeping green crud. It hides under all the heat shrink.

So, if there are starting probems, after freshening up all mechanical connections, testing the batteries, it might be best to be brutal in checking the lugs and cabling in the last 2 inches of every cable involved.

Bus reconditioners replace all the heavy cables, as a matter of course.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[Sojourner]

Allot of good advices, I know because I have learn and done all above posted in my life time to make a living doing customers services.

Might add about shrink tubing....it great to cover for physical strength but unless it is moisture proof and seal the open wire ends a coat of rosin solder or liquid tape, you won't have a moisture proof connection

They do make both version of shrink tubing. Standard version is expensive but moisture proof version is much more expensive.

So whenever shrink wrap battery cable to terminal, always ask for moisture proof shrink tubing. Or wrap & overlap with good electrical tape before standard version shrink wrap over electrical tape. And please sealed the wire ends to keep from wicking moisture into strands of wire to corrode into higher resistant till it burn out.

Read about all kinds of Shrink Tubing

Thank you guys for the wise advices.

FWIW

Sojourn for Christ, Gerald