Hello, I have a 69 dodge van, with a slant 6 motor (I believe it has a 225 but it could be a 160, if this matters), that I need to get moved out of my driveway TOMORROW!!

Let me run you through the issue I ran into:

I was working with a hot engine, trying to figure out some carburetor problems I have been having. The carburetor problem was making the van die unless I manually closed the choke or I kept gas on the throttle. So in the course of tweaking this I would start my van, it would die, I would tweak the carb some more, on a repeated basis. Then the bad happened: I was trying to start the van again, and then all of a sudden the cranking stopped and some smoke started coming out of the starter.

I let the engine cool down, hoping nothing bad happened, then when I came back out to try to start it again, I got a CLICK. Tried again... click. Tried again and got a very rapid series of clicks, then tried again and again a single click. BUMMER! So with the smoke coming from the starter, and the clicks, I figured there could be only one problem... the starter went bad, right?! WRONG! I went and bought a rebuilt starter from chucks and slapped that bad boy on, cleaned up the connections, went to start it again.... CLICK!

My battery is good, my starter is good, the connections on my starter are good, my mechanical knowledge is HORRIBLE!!

I hate asking for help, I like to figure out problems on my own, but I am pressed for time (and money for that matter!) so I thought I'd humbly request some knowledge from more knowledgeable minds than mine. If you have any ideas, (That a mechanically challenged person like me could work with) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know!

Thank you so much!

 

Just because the starter was rebuilt does not mean it can not be bad.
If you have a meter,put it on the battery and check the voltage,also check the voltage when cranking,see how far it drops and how fast it comes back up.
Check the condition of the wires themselves.