white90crxhf

car has been sitting for 1.5 years and i got it working again finally (crappy distributor), starter worked just fine until the day i was going to get it inspected. i can hear the starter gear fly out and then just whine like it's not catching anything. i took it out and brought it to advance and they tested it while i watched. the gear came out like it should every time they did it.

i brought it home put it back in the car and used a jumper wire from the battery to where the black/white wire goes into the starter and it did the same thing it does when i start with the key. I've tried jumping my car with my new car and it sounds exactly the same, it feels like it hits (for a second) then just whines like it's not catching. I checked the flywheel it looks fine. it's the original starter i've got 311,xxx miles on it. the gears on the starter look fine.

Do i need a new starter even though it looked like it works right at autozone? i did some searching and it appears the single cam 92-95 civic (manual) starters will work on my engine - is this true?

i'm going to have my wife tap it with something to see if that works, then it must be the starter right?

white90crxhf

well i smacked it while my wife turned the key and it made the same noise. anyone?

zsoccerdude17

are you positive its the correct starter?

fasthatch95

tapping relays and starters never helps anything if it does work its just gonna leave you stranded sooner or later. what exactly does it do when u turn your key over?

white90crxhf

it sounds like it shoots out and then it sounds like it's just spinning not catching anything. when i took it to advance auto it came out like it should and stayed out...

white90crxhf

went to the junk yard and found another starter...same thing sounds like it shoots out and then just whines...i will keep updating this until i get it fixed.

white90crxhf

It sounded like it backfired when i started it, so i tried adjusting the distributor and it will almost start still backfiring -- so it's not the starter, it seems the timing is messed up, could the timing belt have jumped a tooth and cause this problem?

The distributor is brand new from distributor king and worked just fine right before this started.

white90crxhf

anybody?

EDIT: two of my intake valves were stuck causing it not to start. not sure why they got stuck but they are.

sanimalp

Is the starter actually turning your engine? look on the driver side of the engine to see if the crank pulley is spinning.

The stupid thing about autozone bench tests is that all they tell you is that your starter can spin when electricity is applied. It can't tell if the starter will spin while actually under load. If half the windings on your starter are bad, you would have to hook it up to a power line outside your house to get the thing to turn over your car (don't do that..).

Second, if the car really has been sitting for 1.5 years, was the battery unhooked the whole time? or did you have it on a trickle charger? if it was hooked up the whole time, there is some chance that your battery doesn't have enough energy to turn the starter over under load. The safe way to check this would be to use a ammeter to check the amperage going to your starter when you try to start the car.. A dangerous way to test it is to unhook both poles of the battery in your car, and use jumper cables to attach the 2 ends of your wiring you just took off your battery, and hook the other 2 sides to another car whose battery you know works. then try it.

no sense in buying a new starter if your battery is the problem, and vice versa.. test them both to ensure that whatever you are buying is needed.

good luck.