Mopar Mini Starter Troubleshooting

[rich4406bbl]

I could use a bit help guys. I installed a mopar mini starter over the weekend. It is a 71 Charger RT 440 4-speed with headers. Starter went in fine, minimum of hassles. Problem is sometimes the starter will engage and start the car, more often than not it just whirs and spins. Purchased it on-line from DB Electric, Johnson City TN. Called for tech support and was told that the problem could be that not a full 12V is getting to the starter. Is that true and could be the problem? Any suggestions would be helpful.

[nascarxx29]

By whir and spins .You mean its not spinning over the engine.Might be starter drive not jumping out. From possibly not enough power..How are the teeth where starter engage on the flywheel.Did you bench test it before it went in

[rich4406bbl]

Yes, drive pops out, spins sometimes will engage the flywheel and start the car. I did not bench test it prior to installation since it was new. I have not pulled off the inspection cover to inspect the teeth on the flywheel yet. Possibly tonight's project. Want to verify what the tech told me about the voltage since I had not heard that one before. I hate intermittent problems!!!!

[nascarxx29]

When it did crank over was it noisy.Wont hurt to check clearance and teeth.If teeth check out .And you sure your battery is strong enough .And  + and - cables are good.And you have good grounds

[rich4406bbl]

It sounded fine when it engaged the flywheel and the car started. Fired right up. I was actually surprised how quiclky it fired compared to the old style starter. The battery was disconnected for a week while I drained the cooling system (due to the headers) and did some other work at the same time. I put it back on a Battery Tender trickle charger last night when I was done. I don't mind pulling out the start if it's bad but i want to eliminate the other possiblities. Don't want to swap out the starter for no reason if it is something else. Reason for replacing it was the original starter would sometimes just click and or grind when starting the car.

[trevor74]

Is it an after market flywheel?

I had a similar problem with one of my cars and it turned out i just did not have the starter in right. I know it sounds dumb it it was in just a little bit slanted so when I engaged the starter it would sometimes turn the motor over and sometimes it would jump and miss it.

Also did the starter come with shims or anything?

[nascarxx29]

If you ruled mechanical interference.Get battery to full charge.Or try another battery .And check cables and ground connections

[nascarxx29]

Is it an after market flywheel?

I had a similar problem with one of my cars and it turned out i just did not have the starter in right. I know it sounds dumb it it was in just a little bit slanted so when I engaged the starter it would sometimes turn the motor over and sometimes it would jump and miss it.

Also did the starter come with shims or anything?

I recall on 4 speeds the original mopar starter there was a factory shim.Not sure whats used on these minis

[rich4406bbl]

Don't know about the flywheel, I didn't install it. I bought the car in driving condition. Starter is in straight. Factory metal sheetmetal shim is installed.

[ChgrSteve67]

I had this problem on my 383 and I bought a dust shield off of ebay, after installing it the problem went away.

Its like this one.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MOPAR-B-E-BODY-STARTER-DUST-SHIELD-B-R-B-AUTO-4-SPEED_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286Q2em20Q2el1116QQhashZitem5d25bbc056QQitemZ400065019990QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

The odd thing was I did not have this problem with the big starter on it. I'm still not really sure why this fixed my problem.

[nascarxx29]

Thats the 1 I recall for a 4 speed .The automatic 1 was bigger

[rich4406bbl]

I have that dust shield installed. It was there with the original starter. As for grounds, the car has solid motormounts, heavy gauge (-) cable is grounded at the block from the battery, smaller gauge wire attached to it is grounded on the body and the prevoius owner had also run a ground wire from the lower mounting bolt on the starter to the body. Cables all look to be in good shape but they were on the car when I got it 5 years ago so I don't know when they were installed.

[Topher]

When you put the starter in did you replace the battery cable with a new one? What's the voltage at the starter? What is it when cranking? Have you performed a volt drop test across the cable? Are the nuts on the cables tight? Do you have a good ground cable? Do you have the ground wire going from the engine to the firewall? Do you have good connections at the relay? You need to check all this stuff before yanking the starter back out. I put a starter off a 92 Dakota on my car, 383 4spd, and haven't had any trouble with it not cranking the car.

[rich4406bbl]

Thanks for all of the help guys.  I really appreciate it. This is a running, driving car and it should have been a simple remove and replace. The old gear reduction starter was giving up the ghost so all I wanted to do was replace it. I'll get back to it big time this weekend. No such thing as a simple job.......