1st Rx7 Gen Starting

[Scott Nutter]

I've been plagued with this for a couple of years. When I try to start my car it is a crap shoot as to if the starter will engage or not. The starter spins, I can see the alternator pulley start to turn and then hear the starter spin up. I've tried several starters, though I've never bought one with out a car attached, and still the same thing.

Is it possibly a voltage drop or amperage drop thru my kill switch? Thinking on it, maybe I'll try hitching the battery straight up to the starter, only in the garage of course, and see if it makes a difference.


Thanks for any responses.

[C. Ludwig]

How are the teeth on the flywheel? Maybe they're bad off and the starter gear is simply slipping off the ring gear?

------------------
Chris Ludwig
08 ITS RX7 CenDiv

[dickita15]

i suspect a voltage drop. check your ground connections very carefully
dick

motor may have a bad ground too, all the voltage in the world wont help if theres not a good ground from the motor to the body/battery.

[moto62]

Take apart every connection you have from the battery down to the the starter on both the pos and neg cables and clean them. There may be corrosion in places that cannot be seen from a visiual inspection.(note) A little dielectric grease upon reassembly will help to prevent further corrosion at the connections.(another note) Some parts stores have bench testers that also checks the starters amperage draw. Take a couple of your starters down to them and have them check to see if they are operating within specs. A starter could seem to work ok when tested with a battery and jumper cables but in the car under load it may be a different story.
Ray

[Prince Makaha]

Take a braided ground strap that has a ring terminal on each side which is about 10 inches long.

Bolt one side to the cover that sits on top of the engine (covers the space where the starter used to be on early engines) (if said cover is there?) and the other side to the firewall (possibly hood latch bolts).

On mazdas, there is a common problem with body to engine ground problems.

sometimes causes the jumpy tach as well.

[Scott Nutter]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I didn't get to the garage this weekend, doing the Ohio Winter Rally, what a hoot!.

The cables were all replaced 3 years ago when I built the car, but I'll check ( have to make sure I warm up and stretch before checking those cables behind the dash on the kill switch ) I wil definatly double check the ground!

The other interesting thing is, is that it seems to be worse when it is cold? I tried to start the car two weeks ago, and nothing, never did catch the flywheel, last week I turned the bullet heater under the car for a while and got it started.

Thanks again