I just experienced the exact same problem with my wife's 96 Caravan. You would turn the key and get a click, do it a couple more times and click, click, click, start nice and strong. I talked to the dealer and he stated that the gear reduction type starter goes bad most of the time around the 70,000 mile mark. Funny. Mine has 68,000. Close enough for me. The dealer wanted $250 for parts and labor to change out the starter. I went to NAPA, got one for $99.00 and had a local service station change it out for $30.00 (what a deal!). Big difference in price and now it works great. I though it was just the neutral safety switch until I hit the starter one time while holding one of those "clicks" and it started right up.
Rob Robinson
96 V8 Sport 2wd
Newport, NC
- ----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Clark <magnumv8@wtez.net>
> Several weeks back I had some problems starting my Dak. I would turn
> the key and get a single click (like a relay opening or something) but
> the motor wouldn't turn over. After repeatedly engaging the ignition
> it would finaly kick over and start up just as strong as ever. I had
> it checked out at a Sears center and they checked everything. They
> cleaned the terminals and tightened them, checked the starter, the
> battery and couldn't find anything wrong (the problem was/is
> intermitent). But the terminal cleaning and tightening seemed to fix
> it, problem went away ....... until tonight. I just left a friends
> house and it didn't want to start again. I just keyed the ignition 7
> or 8 times and finally it kicked right over nice and strong. Anyone
> know what might be going on here? I don't *think* it's the battery,
> because when it does start it's nice and strong.
>
> --Mike
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:49:30 EDT