I need help I drove it to the store the other day. parked it for a week and went to fire it and nothing.
Starter wouldnt turn. Replaced it and still nothing.
When i turn the key the lights dim and no cranking.
Added a jumper pack same thing. Same thing between old and new starter.
No clicking sounds nothing.

If i remove the signal wire and try and crank the lights dont dim. so seems signal wire is ok.

I put the jumper pack on the starter terminal directly with the signal wire back on and same thing, lights dim but nothing.

So seems the load wire from battery to starter is ok. I put the jump pack across the terminals and it spins fine.

If i jumper the Batter terminal on the start to the signal wire terminal the starter spins and i can start the car with the key on.

SO i have no idea what is going on. anyone else have this problem?

 

my first guess would be a dead battery, or corroded terminals. The last part of what you said makes me think it might be your ignition switch. There is a thread around here thats pretty popular about this issue. Here is the link https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...ied-fixed.html

 

I checked that and it did make a difference.

Before it was not making a sound at all and the lights dimmed.
I gave it a twist and tightened the screw and now when i turn the key it makes a faint clunk sound.
Lights still dim too.
So it seems the switch was part of the issue but did not fix it. I also had a spare switch all together and changed it out just in case, but still just a clunk sound when i turn the key.

 

What is your battery voltage and what are your voltage drops and ohm readings for the circuit? This information would be more then enough to diagnose the circuit.

 

Put a volt meter on the battery while cranking. If you jump 12v on the starter wire @ ignition switch the car starts? If you are planning on ohming the for open to ground unplug both ends or you can use a test light to battery positive testing from ignition side, wire unplugged.

 

bad starter solenoid?

 

Hey everyone thanks for all the Help i got it fixed. It was in fact an ignition switch issue. Reason why i kept having problems, the new starter was Bunk. It wouldnt freely spin. SO once i got that switch figured out and i started to hear that clunk sound, it was the starter binding up on something inside itself. So once i had the switch problem fixed it the brand new starter threw me for a loop. Thanks again fro everyone jumping in and helping.

 

Good to hear another evo is on the road.

 

Maybe not haha.
I got another starter yet again and its doing the same as the other new ones. Put my old one back in and it works.

So either i got two starters from two different companies and they both have the same problem or i have something really weird with my car going on.

 

can you toss a meter on the starter and have someone crank it for you while you record out the values. You will need the voltage from the big lug and the small connector. You can ground the meter to the block or starter chassis. Also check your engine grounds while you are at it, you never know. Also i am still pretty suspicious of your battery and terminals, clean those and make sure your battery is healthy.

 

I did alot of electrical testing besides voltage drops on the starter, so i need to do more testing when i get home

I have 2 batteries. both fully charged. I tried using one to jump the other or used the other off the car on its own.

i also have a ground wire bolted to the starter bolt up to the block with the OEM ground wire on that same bolt.

I have also used my jumper cables to run a positive right from the battery to the starter to bypass the oem wire to prove its ok.

I did a few shorting the starter signal terminal with the 12v lug while the key was on. the starter cranked buy very weak. i added my second battery with jumper cables right to the starter to help boost it. it was still weak but strong enough to get the to engine fire, engine fires but then died soon as i stopped jumping the starter signal terminal. (almost like it might be shorting the engine out or something? but that might of been the old ignition switch issue causing that so i need to re run these tests tonight.)

What is crazy is that the old one works just fine. (besides the solenoid is going bad so the ring gear doesnt always grab the flywheel, why i want to replace it) i have swapped both new ones out and the old one in 4 or 5 times. every time i put the old one in it cranks and fires nearly instantly. SO there is definitely something inherently different with the old starter to the 2 new ones. (both came from different stores from different manufactures)

 

yah i replaced my first bad starter with a generic aftermarket and it was junk, then i bought an OEM starter and it worked perfectly. I don't know why but the price of the evo 8 starter is alot cheaper then the evo 9 for some reason.

 

I can only get remanned ones here on short noticed from the local auto parts stores.

 

just to conclude this thread that way if anyone find this later and have similar issues they know what i did to solve my problem

So it was not a starter issue but some kind of odd load issue. A new relay did not fix the problem either.

If i bypassed the relay with a wire the starter would crank no problem. If i had the starter out of the car and jumped it, it would work no problem. If i took a meter on Amp setting and used it to jump the battery to the solenoid terminal i would see a 6.5amp draw. Same draw on my old starter as well.

I tried to use my meter in the same way to bypass the relay, battery + to the relay output terminal in the fuse box using the meter on amps it would make the same clunk sound of it trying to rotate and my meter would read over load. (10amp max meter)

I checked the resistance between that terminal output and the chassis and it was high but since i dont have a second car to compare to i dont know what it should be. So there is a chance of some shorting some where.

I then took a 10amp fuse to see if the current draw was extremely high, like it was in fact shorted. The 10amp fuse would not blow after about 5-10 second of cranking in a few attempts. So the current draw was not huge (even though my meter says it was out of range and its good to 10amps)

So i think there is a slight possibility of a short, maybe a slight chafe somewhere causing the current load to be slightly higher then the relay or meter can do but not enough to blow a fuse. Or the wire is just a higher resistance due to corrosion. So i bypassed the relay with my own automotive one good for 30amps but still have the output fused at 10amps. That way if there is a short or gets worse and shorts i will blow the fuse and know i have a larger issue i need to still track down and find.

While i was at it i bypassed the key switch just in case there is some issue causing the short on that end and installed a push button start since i already have an extra relay in there anyway. Why not, because racecar, right? lol

Anyway i at least have the car working and will quickly know if i have an actual short forming (even though i could not find any chafing) if i start losing 10amp fuses.