Alright I'm at a loss with this thing. I picked up a 94 Dakota SLT with the Magnum V6. It had a bad starter. Starter motor wouldn't rotate. So I went to the local parts store and picked up a re-manufactured one with a limited warranty (Brand is Ultima). I installed it and when I went to crank the motor, it cranked for half a second but then the starter stopped cranking the motor and kept spinning. So all I hear is the whirring sound of the starter. No grinding or any nasty sounds like that. Thinking I had a starter with a bad clutch mechanism, I returned the starter and exchanged it. The second one did the exact same thing and I'm going crazy over this thing. I find it hard to believe I had two bad ones in a row but I can't think of anything else that would cause this.

Here's a listed of everything I've tried/checked/replaced:
- brand new battery
- flex plate teeth look good
- cranked the motor by hand to make sure it wasn't ceased
- bench tested starter, appeared fine
- bypassed the starter relay, no improvement
- checked battery cables and ground connections, looked good
- tried installing the starter with shims, nothing
- reinstalled starter a couple different times to see it alignment was the issue, nothing.

I'm at a complete loss now. I'm at the point where I want to push this thing off a cliff. Does anyone have any suggestions or has experienced something similar?

 

Make sure you are getting at least 9 volts on the wire to the starter solenoid. (when you turn the key to start....) Two bad ones in a row, from the same manufacturer, wouldn't be too much of a stretch...... Also, make sure the mounting surfaces are clean. Starter grounds thru the engine block.....

 

I'll add that the previous owner bought an Ultima starter; it took four swaps before I gave up on those POS chunks of crap.

RwP

 

Thanks I'll check the voltages to make sure that's not it. I did try to exchange it again but the store refused and made it sound like it was super crazy that I could have gotten two bad ones in a row. Unfortunately if it's a bad starter I'm probably SOL and will have to buy another. Definitely not from the same place though.

 

If it comes down to it you should contact the Regional Manager or higher in the corporate structure if its a chain store and tell them. It is not unusual for two items of an off brand to be bad out of box. If you can afford it you might want to go with a higher quality starter.

 

Yeah it all looks good on that front as well.

I actually started going that route earlier today. Contacted corporate. They claimed to have called the store and sided with them. Basically was told to pound sand. It has to fail their bench test to be warrantied. I'm about to just throw in the towel and get a brand new starter (not re-manufactured) from a more reputable place and hope that starter actually is the issue.

Thank you all for your replies!

 

If the starter bench tested fine, then why do you think multiple starters are the problem? With the starter installed, run power straight from the battery to test.