Either I am doing something stupid or the starter I bought is toast. Whats the easiest way to test a d series starter motor when its out of the car?

 

take a big pice of wire touch it to the battey pos. and one to ground just for a second though just to see if th starter activates

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by messeduprex &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">take a big pice of wire touch it to the battey pos. and one to ground just for a second though just to see if th starter activates</TD></TR></TABLE> Or a jump box

 

I take a set of jumper cables to it.

Take some decent thick wire (speaker cable or better) and rig it to the place the ignition wire goes and wrap the other end around the threaded post the battery positive cable goes to.

Hook jumper cables to it next - pos goes to the threaded post and neg goes anyhere good on the starter case.

Hook one of the other jumper cable clamps to a good car battery.

Then take the last clamp and touch it to the battery to complete the circuit.

A spark might pop off when you make the final connection to the battery so don't get freaked out - it's ok.

The starter may try to twist on the ground when you make the connection so I normally hold it down with my foot.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by messeduprex &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">take a big pice of wire touch it to the battey pos. and one to ground just for a second though just to see if th starter activates</TD></TR></TABLE>

From how I read it, you are taking a big piece of wire and connecting to the battery on the positive terminal.
Then you are hooking the other end to ground?
That's a SHORT and will never do anything but fry your battery out!

 

he's running the current through the starter, not just shorting it out. of course, starter motors do have very little resistance so they will drain a lot of current. the only problem with that test is it doesn't test whether the ring pops out.

its been a problem on two of my starters, i just live with it. every once in a while, the ring on the starter doesn't pop out and catch the teeth on the flywheel, causing it to just spin freely without starting the car. to me, it only does it every week or two and it goes away after a second, so i just live with it.

 

I believe you can take it to pepboys and have them try it for you...not too sure on that though.

 

4dref had it right. thats a simple way to test the starter.

 

pepboys or autozone.