More on a thin solenoid disc causing hard starting. The starter man told me that every time you turn the key, the disk slaps against the contacts, and one contact or the other will always spark as the circuit is completed through the disc. Eventually this sparking vaporizes the copper almost all around the disc. I think the disc may rotate every time it is moved and maybe this is why sometimes it will make contact, other times not.

 

Sorry, it wasn't the disc that was thin, it was one or both of the contacts. I think the disc had pits. As it would rotate with each attempt to start, it would make better or worse connection and that was why sometimes it would power the starter, other times not.

 

I have a 92 dakota,V6, 200k miles. I am having trouble with my starter relay. It is located under the hood. in a power box to the right of the drivers side wheel well. When i remove the black cap, i keep the key in the on position, touch the contact points and she kicks right in. My problem is that no one seems to have a replacement starter relay. The people at Dodge, Pep boys, Auto zone and Murrays all show a relay that has a mounting screw, not one that goes in the power box. Any Ideas? This relay is going to fail permanently some day and I need a new one.

 

The replacement starters that are at the normal auto parts stores are usually junk. Just repair your stock starter. They are simple fixes or just bring them to a starter and altinator shop. here is the parts:

http://www.wai-wetherill.com/products/sresultv.cfm


http://www.nationsautoelectric.com/dodgetruck.html

 

You can get a relay from radio shack. All the relays are the same. So if you need to for a temp. fix just use the ac relay. The best choice you can make for starters is a mopar high torque starter. They are smaller so it is easyer to install and they will fit all magnum engines v6 and v8s. They use half the power as a regular and put out twice the power a stock one. Trust me its worth it. I got one.

 

if i was in that position i would look at replacing the copper ring with one from the front calipers used to seal the brake line to it (there heavy duty). they come in different sizes and you might find one to match only a lot thicker. i havn't seen the ring in the solonoid but you might get lucky.
comes from years of owning an old dak and a low budget.
i should add that all car manfactures tried to save money, so if they had a design that would work for the solonoid and the brakes, this would save money.