Power to good starter but not working?

[Chopped]

I did try searching but couldn't find anything related to my issue. I get power to my starter when I turn the key but that's it. I have pulled to starter had it tested and everything was good on the bench but when I put it back in car nothing! I get 12.7volts to it. im stumped! anyone have any advice? id hate to buy a starter for $100 and it still not work....

[rc1honda]

It's probably a bad ground. I had the same problem. Find where's the starter is grounded to and take it off and ground to the shock tower just for a test to see of it cranks.


Then clean a good spot or use the old spot and clean it up. Reground it and it should crank.

[Chopped]

Ill give it a try. I just completed a motor build and cleaned all grounds then but it could be bad still

[ShadowMan]

I have had shit test good on the bench as many as 3 times, bought a new one, problem solved. But yeah, check the grounds first since it's free and simple.

[NismoDriverS13]

could be your alternator...I had that happen to me, got an alternator from the junkyard and was all good again.

[ShadowMan]

I was thinking some more so I came back with more ideas. Maybe that ground wire is bad, never hurts to use new wires for your grounds as the old ones can corrode and break inside the protective sheathing. Remember, electricity flows along the outside of the wires not through them, so if your shit is tarnished and discolored all green and whitesh, then it's ability to provide you and acceptable ground is diminished or non existent. As far as the alternator being the problem, not likely, as cars use the battery to start, then the alternator provides the electricity the car needs and charges the battery once the engine is running. Your car will run fine without an alternator, just not for very long, it'll also run ok without a battery once you get it started.
I say try a brand new grounding wire and make sure your battery has a complete full charge, if that doesn't work, buy a new starter. Just because your getting the 12.7 volts at the starter, doesn't mean the battery has enough power to crank the starter. Starters require quite a bit of continous juice to crank the motor over.

[partemisio]

Check for a good ground like stated. You can just apply a ground temporarily and see if it works. Also, are you sure your not checking the constant for power?

[Chopped]

So i believe my problem was in my ground for the battery. I took it off put new terminal on and a new ring terminal for the ground location. She starts every time now. But i have a question, can you ground too much? I understand the purpose of a ground but can you create an over abundant resistance? Usually it should be around 2 or 3 ohms if i remember correct.

[jr_ss]

No, you cannot over ground. Is that even a term?

[mechanicalmoron]

So i believe my problem was in my ground for the battery. I took it off put new terminal on and a new ring terminal for the ground location. She starts every time now. But i have a question, can you ground too much? I understand the purpose of a ground but can you create an over abundant resistance? Usually it should be around 2 or 3 ohms if i remember correct.

To complete your circuit, you want as little resistance as possible, except for whatever resistance in inherent your device (starter, in this case).

More path for electricity on the ground side is NOT a problem, at all. Your whole chassis is a ground, because it's connected to your negative battery terminal. (unless, of course, you have a positive ground car.... and you don't).

Obviously having a bunch of wires doing the same thing is stupid, and more points of potential failure, fire, etc. But you can't have too good a ground, good means less resistance, and your ground can't have too little resistance.

Fewer ohms is better. There may be a spec, which shouldn't matter at all if your chassis/battery cable is okay, and your individual component ground wires are okay. More ohms mean more electricity is lost to heat, like in a toaster (obviously, hopefully not quite to that degree). Being under the spec for ohms is fine, it's over that you'd need to worry about.

Like, there's a spec for our spark plug wires - mine, and probably most peoples, are perfectly on that spec. But people buy massive wires... why? Well I'll give you a hint, it's not to increase the resistance.