Tech Tips COLUMN BY JOHN JERVELUND mount with three or four threaded mount- purpose of the recess is to permit the installation of an alignment sleeve alignment sleeve. When you take the starter out it usually stays in the trans- the new starter from your rebuilder that it has one installed. Because, even if you All of the Alliance and Encore products use a starter which <) has a triangular shaped ing holes. If you look aS at the drive end of one of these starters, you will see that the threads in the middle hole (or holes) are recessed. The through which one of the mounting bolts passes. Do not under any circumstance rein- stall one of these starters without that mission—but sometimes it gets stuck in the starter. Either remove it from the starter and put it back in the transmis- sion or be very sure that when you get put a bolt in all four holes, the starter will more than likely shift with the result that the drive and the ring gear are usually ruined. The standard big bodies Chevy starter has given me two lessons this month. The first came when I agreed to sell a garage account a starter without the solenoid. His customer had tried to fix the old starter by installing a new solenoid, and when that didn’t work, decided that he needed a new starter, but...he couldn’t return the solenoid and therefore wanted a starter without one. After the starter was installed, the garage brought me the car and wanted to know what the problem was. When you tried to start the car, the starter sounded like the clutches in the drive were slowly releasing. I had never heard anything like it. The garage was not happy when I told him to take the starter back off, and I would put another drive in it. With the new drive, the starter did the same thing, and the garage was really unhappy now! I built up a new starter and took it over there. We pulled the starter again (third time), but instead of just putting the new starter in, my customer wanted to put the solenoid from the starter I had just brought in, onto the first starter I had given him. Well, you know the result. The starter worked perfectly. The “new” solenoid supplied by his customer was defective. Let me say at this point, that if you had told me that a solenoid would cause a starter to make that kind of noise, I probably would have accused you of having a liquid lunch. However, from this moment on, if the manufacturer put a solenoid on the starter, then so will I. Brantford Starter will not supply any starter without its solenoid—the unit will be supplied complete or not at all. This next lesson came from a cus- tomer who had purchased a starter for a 4.3L in an Astro van. The starter worked perfectly all day, and in the evening the owner shut the van off and left to go in the house. The van suddenly started to crank its engine over by itself! No one was in the van and neither were the keys. Tools were not readily available and by the time the battery was discon- nected, the starter was history. The van had to be towed back to the garage, and the mechanic called to see if I had any ideas. My first idea was that he should forget about the problem being in the starter. It is a physical impossibility for a solenoid activated starter to engage by itself. For one to stay engaged is very slightly possible. But to start from an “at rest” position and engage is not. The only thing that will cause a solenoid to pull in, is current on the switch wire. It doesn’t matter where the current comes from, but if the starter engages by itself and usually if it stays engaged, there was current on the switch wire. In this case, when the starter was installed, the switch wire had rotated while being tightened and had come in contact with the main power supply at the solenoid. The hole in the insulation looked like a pin prick but it was enough for current to flow through to the switch wire. Probably the hole had been made by pressure and vibration. As the engine cooled and everything contracted, con- tact was made. Beginning in the 1990 model year, GM started using what is called the SD series of starter. This is a “small body” unit, which can best be identified by the fact that there is a two legged clamp assembly, which fits over the solenoid, and is held by two bolts to the starter housing. Almost from the beginning of use, there have been complaints of intermit- tent “no start,’ where the customer hears the solenoid, but nothing happens. GM issued a bulletin recommending that the solenoid be replaced, but a GM dealer I know said that they always replaced the plunger as well. Having examined sev- eral plungers I agree, and as a result, if nothing else is wrong with the starter, can recommend a repair procedure or replacing the solenoid and plunger assembly. It is imperative that you use the recommended grease (available only from GM) on the solenoid bore. Do not use anything other than the recommended grease, or the solenoid will stick. After the 1990 model year, GM made a change in th