[madeintaiwan]

So I loaded my 84 Diesel Suburban up yesterday to move from house to house and when i got in to start i had full power. I waited for the glow plug light to switch off and started it as normal (pressing a bit of throttle and cranking the starter). In the middle of cranking though it lost all power and there was a noticeable click. Now it's dead as far as the key in the ignition is concerned. There is 12v power at the cigarette lighter and both batteries have 12.8 v. I looked through the fuses and don't have a book yet but tested both the large 30amp fuses and got 12v coming out of one and .48 on the other. I tested both for continuity and they both were ok. Is there somewhere i should look first? is there a fusible link that i am missing?


thanks

nate

 

[Crawdaddy]

you got .48 volts on a fused link? That's not right in the least. everything in the vehicle should be 12-14 volts. I can't think of anything in vehicles nowadays that run on anything less than 12 volts, except for a few LED bulbs, which run at 6 volts if I remeber correctly.

 

[madeintaiwan]

Yeah there are two large silver 30amp fuses neither of which I know the purpose since i don't have a book. When i do put the key to ignition though when testing the fuse that's on the firewall I get 12v with the key off and an immedeate drop to 0 when the key is switched on. Am I shorting to ground somewhere?

 

[Cableguy]

Yeah there are two large silver 30amp fuses neither of which I know the purpose since i don't have a book. When i do put the key to ignition though when testing the fuse that's on the firewall I get 12v with the key off and an immedeate drop to 0 when the key is switched on. Am I shorting to ground somewhere?

Sounds like an open to me. If you have voltage then turn key on drops voltage, under load. An open won't blow the fuse. Check for bad corrosion on terminals ie starter, battery etc. Clean and retighten.

 

[madeintaiwan]

Yeah i was thinking that maybe the connection on the starter may have gotten fuel on it? or dirt or something and I clean everything down and retighten. If my starter died would this happen? I get no radio or inst cluster power although the amp gauge does flick ever so slightly.

 

[madeintaiwan]

BAD Starter.

So after tracing all the wire back, cleaning all the posts on the batteries I got one good start and then it did the click dead thing again. Fed up I bought a gear reduction starter that won't be here for days so I decided that a starter motor is nothing more than a big electromagnetic motor that was probably super dirty. I was right. Took it apart, cleaned and lightly sanded the commutator and put a little oil on the spots that moved. Put it back in and tightened everything down. Thing starts right up.

One question, anyone have an idea where to look for a rebuild kit? New brushes and seals kind of thing?

Thanks for the help..!

Nate

 

[ChevyFan]

So after tracing all the wire back, cleaning all the posts on the batteries I got one good start and then it did the click dead thing again. Fed up I bought a gear reduction starter that won't be here for days so I decided that a starter motor is nothing more than a big electromagnetic motor that was probably super dirty. I was right. Took it apart, cleaned and lightly sanded the commutator and put a little oil on the spots that moved. Put it back in and tightened everything down. Thing starts right up.

One question, anyone have an idea where to look for a rebuild kit? New brushes and seals kind of thing?

Thanks for the help..!

Nate

Wow, good for you. Get any photos of the process along the way?

I know that you can get a rebuild kit for these things, I'm just not sure where you would get one.