question for 5speed problem

[Subafreak]

Any one who did there own 5speed swap.
I,v been having an occasional starting broblem. Sometimes when I go to start the car it will just click like the starters stuck, I would hit it a few times and some times it will start, so I thought it was the starter. Then the other day when it was like 10deg outside, I went to start it and it just clicked, so I tapped the starter with a puch and tried again, click, hit it again, click, again, click, so I pull of the relay wire and jump the terminals with a screwdriver, the engine cranks and cranks, so I hook the wire back up and hit the key, CLICK! grrrrrr. Leave the key on, get out jump the terminals, the engine cranks and cranks but won't start? So I hook the wire back up through a set of jumper cables on it and it starts?

So I seem to have ruled out a bad starter. The only thing I'm thinking now is possibly the clutch defeat switch. You see the wires you tap into are like 14gage and the wires in the clutch plug were tiny like 18gage. So posiblly there's to much resistence in the smaller wire or the switch, but I did check to make sure I had power at the starter relay, and it would lite up a test lite put wouldn't engage the starter.

Any input would be welcome, maybe save me some time looking for the problem.

Other than that, the 5speed rocks!

Hey Subafreak,

It's unlikely that you have a resistance problem in a wire. The starter trigger wire , although I do not know the exact ohmage, 14 guage wire would certainly carry enough current to trigger the starter. Remember starter trigger wire is sort of a relay. It carries not current to actually make the starter rotate. It's the battery cable that actually powers the starter the trigger wire just completes the circuit. I wonder if you possibly have a loose connection on either the main power supply to the starter or the trigger wire? I suppose you could test it by using a test light or a volt meter on the trigger wire and have somebody hold the key forward as to start it. By the way the 1st 2 weeks we had the 5 speed in we had the same exact problem over and over again...the culperate a bad starter...then replaced with a remaned starter... then same problem. It was an Advanced Auto POS...the we got a better remaned and no problem ever since. Good Luck to you!!!

Megan

[Subafreak]

Thanks for the replie. I'll check my connections, I really don't think it's the starter now, besides I never had a problem with it in my Legacy, even tho it's 170K old.

[Ovidiu STAN]

I had this problem with several cars.

It happends with old starters.

The click that you hear is the bendix (I'll be damn if I know the official name). His job is to push the starter gear in position (it really moves the entire rotor until its gear is on contact with the flywheel) and ..... (here is your problem) to close the + from battery to starter.

Your high current contacts are shut/corroded or (ususally there is a spring that is pushing a plate over two contacts) your spring is broken/"tired".

The sollution is to open the starter, clean the high current contacts and the contact plate with sandpaper and double check the spring.

Clean and put everything together. How to try it:

You have 3 contacts:

1) small diameter contact- this is coming from key
2) large diameter contact (1/3" - this goes to + battery permanently
3) the case - is ground.


Connect it to + and - and just touch with + the key contact. Keep it firmly at this phase. You should see how it throws the rotor and how it starts cranking.

Do this several times at least to check that you put everything in the right position.

Good luck.

I've been having exactly the same problem with mine, but it's actually been going on since before the 5-speed. Seems to be very random - sometimes it'll click 10+ times before starting, others it fires right up on the first try. I already replaced the battery and starter, but no luck.

It had gotten pretty bad, and I couldn't come up with anything else to try, so I let the dealership take a look at it a couple of weeks ago. They said the battery was defective, and despite the fact that I'd already replaced it several months earlier, I went along. It helped, but didn't fix it. Still acts up every now and then.

[huck369]

Sounds like a starter problem to me, maybe just needs to be taken apart and cleaned out, but a rebuild would be the better way to go, I had a local rebuid shop quote me $60 to rebuild mine.

[Subafreak]

Well I went and cleaned all my connections, and tried to start it, didn't start. So I took the starter apart and cleaned it up, So far it's started about 5 times with out a broblem. Ok so maybe it was the starter.