starter on 98 dodge ram

[Soundguy]

Truck is having hard time starting.. turning key gives a good clunk.. hitting it 3-4 times and she catches and start spins over like no problem. one of them gear reduction units it looks like. Guess i will be climbing under there int he morning and pulling if I can find one in an auto store locally. Sure hate to work on modern vehicles.. but.. gotta have the truck starting correctly.

Just looking under with a flashlight tonight looks like big power wire and a smaller wire hookup somewhere to the top of the starter.. figure power and solenoid connections.. was able to feel around and feels like a '2-bolt' job.

Anyone pull one of these? is solenoid integral to starter like it looks from the fender well.

Any magic-guru special tools needed? I got regular sae and metric sockets and wrenches for my tractors.

truck is a 98 dodge ram 4x4 with 5.9lv8 napa online and autozone 'appear' to carry the starter so i might be able to find one tomorrow morning.

thanks for any advice.

did I mention i hated to work on anything newer than 70's!!!

soundguy

 

[ScottAR]

Solenoid is made on the starter... $200ish and some regular tools and she'll go again.

 

[dodge man]

Don't forget to disconnect the battery. The lead is usually hot all the time. I found that out the hard way once.

 

[Soundguy]

Yep! Forgot to pull the leak while pulling her out this am and got a small spark.. whipped the hot lead off after that and no more surprises!

man.. I like older stuff.. but this new stuff .. it makes you take 30 things off to do one thing.

A small bracket had to come off the bellhousing, then the keeper fort he trans cooler lines.. then I had to use a couple extensions for the top bolt.. yada.. yada.. bottom one came off good.

New starter is a bit noisier.. but starts the truck every time! I found one at napa in town for? 149$ tookt he wife to lunch after i pulled the core, and ran by napa and made the exchange and grabbed oil change supplies since i was already on the creeper and had the truck on stands... all done now... and I don't have to worry about being stranded!

one strange thing i noticed... the 2 starter bolts/nuts and the wire connections wera all sae... one of the bracket bolts was sae, and one was metric... WeIrD?

thanks for the advice guys.

soundguy

 

[mattman]

Yep, they will be both sae and metric nuts bolts etc, wish they would just go one way or the other. Now you have to have both sets of wrenches to work on american auto's.

 

[kenmac]

How many miles on that truck Chris ?. I have a 97 ( I guess same engine & intake) (124000 miles) Already replaced starter. Not a bad job...I had Very small coolant leak at the rt. back corner of the intake. Had to pull the intake & replace the gaskets. It was about a 2 day job. All those vaccum lines & electrical connections. Since you can't even see the distributor, with the intake on. I replaced the rotor , cap & wires. While I was at it I replaced the valve cover gaskets. That was a BIG JOB ! But, I guess I saved alot of $ doing it myself

 

[Soundguy]

160K on mine.

Only leaks I've had was a water pump and a radiator.

Did an ignition tune up last year so it should be good for a while. I hate the air cleaner design.. no flip uptop lid.. got to take the whole filter carrier of fthe TB..


Yeah.. plenty of lines and things in the way... starter sure wasn't 'fun'. Saved a couple hundred in labor doing it myself though... can't beat that with a stick.

soundguy

 

[pat32rf]

At least you don't have to lay in the snow to do it ;-)

 

[Soundguy]

Well.. that's true..it was only about 50 that morning.. so I guess I can't complain there!

soundguy

 

[mattman]

Alot of folks around here have had problems with the 5.9 liter pulling harder than the transmission can handle. Had any problems with yours? Other than that the mid 90's to 2000 dodge trucks were pretty good