dmanfree

Recently, my starter went out on me. I'm positive it was the starter because I had somebody tap it for me while I turned the key and it started up fine. I bought a new starter, replaced the old one, and now my car still won't start. I can hear the starter turning, it sounds almost like a small fan, making me think it's not reaching the flywheel. Everything I've researched has said that the problem could be the flywheel but I never had any problems starting before the old starter started to die (and I noticed it getting weaker with each start before it finally died). I took the new starter back to O'reilly's where I bought it, the tested it and said it was fine. I tried putting it back in and still no luck. Can someone please help me? I have an F22 engine with an automatic transmission.

MAD_MIKE

If the bendix drive is faulty then the start motor will spin but the bendix will not push the gear out to engage the flywheel. Thus you would hear the spinning starter motor.

Albeit the fellows at ORLY didn't know what they were looking at as the Honda units have the gear drive exposed. When they tested it did you see the gear shoot out ~1" then turn or did you just see the motor spin?

You could pull the starter out and verify that the bendix is not stuck. Use a long flat blade screw driver and see if it is easy to pull the gear out. If it is stuck or sticking then you will need another starter.

Just make sure your battery is fully charged with clean/tight connections.

dmanfree

Sorry, I'm not very familiar with the individual parts of the starter, but I assume the gear drive is the piece that goes is supposed to engage the flywheel. As far as I can tell, it doesn't seem to be stuck, I can pull it out by hand. However, by the sound that it makes, I feel like it is spinning but not extending to the flywheel. I couldn't see for myself when they tested it at O'reilly's because they tested it behind the counter where it was out of my view.

MAD_MIKE

Bah, yeah. If the person is not familiar with Honda starters then they may have not noticed that the gear didn't extend out. Since it is exposed already.

Possibly an easier way to test it on the car would be to get a wire the size of the solenoids power on wire, and jumper between that terminal and the main power feed.
If the starter simply spins then you know the bendix is buggered. You will hear/feel the click of the solenoid as it shunts the gear drive out.

dmanfree

UPDATE: I called my local Honda mechanics and told them what was going on. They said it sounded like I could have the wrong starter. I took it back to O'reilly's to return it and the guy said that between 96-97, Honda switched to a different starter. Therefore, my model had 2 different starters. I'm getting another one today, I'll update if I have any more issues with it.

On a side note, before I called up my shop, I wanted to test my battery to see if it had enough charge. I thought, if it wasn't putting out enough power, maybe that would explain my issues with my starter. I took my voltmeter to it and it read 17V. I know it should be around 12.6V. I'm not completely ruling out user error on this, but I can't think of anything I did wrong. Is there something that could cause this or is my cheap Harbor Freight voltmeter just reading wrong?

MAD_MIKE

Ugh, that is very high, even when running the voltage output will be around 14V.

Either you read it wrong, or that DVM is busted. Can you bring the battery to the local auto store for a free test?