http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_780_449/alternator-cable-upgrade.html
Stuart
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Michael McSwain
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2016 10:02 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Is something killing my starters?
Well I took the starter out last night and it's definitely not responding to voltage at all. I think I'm going to try one of Karl's adapters and a gear reduction starter along with a new cable to the battery. My current cable is slightly frayed at the battery end and at least 2 strands of wire are broken. So hopefully that's a safe bet. I will probably try the voltage test you described after new starter but before new cable. Seems reasonable.
On Wed, Jun 29, 2016, 10:29 AM Steve Williams < steve@williamsitconsulting.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My first guess would be the positive cable from the battery to the starter.
>
> If there is corrosion or deterioriation of the wiring, there will be a
> bigger voltage drop over the length of the cable. Voltage drop is
> related to the amount of current being drawn through the wire, so it's
> best to test under load.
>
> If the voltage drop is too much (voltage too low @ starter), the only
> way for the starter to work is to draw more current to compensate for
> lower voltage. High current is what will generally cause electrical
> devices to burn up.
>
> I've never had to do this, but I would think measuring the actual
> voltage from the starter post to a local ground WHILE CRANKING would
> be a useful data point. Do the same thing at the battery end of the
> cable & see how much voltage loss is in the cable.
>
> The other disadvantage of high voltage drop is that the drop is lost
> as heat, which isn't really desirable when dealing with the current
> that a starter draws.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve W.
>
>
> On 26/06/2016 12:09 PM, Michael McSwain wrote:
> > I replaced my unknown age starter on my 1.9 about a year ago with a
> > brand new Bosch. Recently it started displaying the same symptoms
> > as the previous one. Turning the engine over seemed to get more and
> > more laborious and eventually it stopped doing anything at all. The
> > last hand full of times it actually started, I turned the key and it
> > turned over once, then a 2 second or so silent pause then it turned
> > over again and cranked up. Pretty much the same exact symptoms as the previous starter.
> >
> > So far I've jumpered around my ignition switch. Nothing. I cleaned
> > my battery/body and transmission grounds. Nothing. I bridged the
> > starter
> and
> > solenoid posts with a screw driver and got a little spark, but
> > nothing
> at
> > all from the starter motor. Silence on all counts except for the
> > fuel
> pump
> > priming which has been happening all along. Does this just sound
> > like
> bad
> > luck and it's a bad starter or is there something else that could be
> > causing a premature failure of the starter?
> >
> > I also had my battery checked and it checked out fine. I have one
> > of
> those
> > cigarette lighter volt meters that consistently shows 13.9 volts at
> speed.
> > If it weren't a 1 year old Bosch starter I would have immediately
> > assumed that to be the problem. Am I just in denial?
> >
> > Any thoughts would be much appreciated
>
>