denverpilot
Tied Down
Decided it was so nice out today (maybe 50F, sunny, dry, little wind) that I’d “get around to” replacing the contacts in the Dodge Cummins Denso starter, since it has been going “click” instead of cranking, on and off... and this is a known problem with that starter. Not big on being stranded because the contact finally wore to the point where a good hammer whack under the truck wouldn’t “fix” it temporarily anymore, wasn’t on my 2018 to-do-for-fun list. So it has to come off.
(That it’s a known problem is a problem in and of itself... why the hell does the thing eat one contact and always one contact, and they’ve never come up with a better design for that solenoid? The gear reduction and starter motor are nearly indestructible, but that stupid Denso plunger and contacts just burn away over time...)
Anyway, it made it 156,000 miles and who knows how many starts, so it was time...
Grab a coffee and head to the truck, remove battery cables... since we’re going to be messing with a starter, and since it’s a manual, made sure it was chocked and out of gear with the parking brake set... ok belt and suspenders complete, I get under the truck.
Find the starter. Had watched a few YT videos and all are pretty vague about getting this thing out but all looked like there’s plenty of room to work.
Learned from the videos that Dodge uses 12 point 10mm bolts to hold this thing in. For god’s sake, why? What a PITA.
Ok, recon complete, go digging for the 12 point sockets and of course, the six million 10mm sockets are scattered all over the garage. I really need to sort the tools and clean up the toolboxes and lay them all back out properly. Too many “grab a pile of tools and toss them in a tool bag” quick jobs lately.
I get the tools and back under the truck, and pull the 14mm nut and the 7mm nut off the electrical connections. Again, why 7mm?! Damnit just use a 10mm on that second one. More freaking sockets. I take like five socket wrenches under there with me so I can just leave “whatever works” assembled as complete wrenches for the reassembly later.
Then I start messing with the “special” bolts. And I mean the old school mean meaning of special, these bolts are retarded. 10mm 12 points with an angled shoulder on them. Why?! Just use a damned normal 12... freaking Denso...
The bottom drivers side bolt is in a lovely position, any combination of ratchet and extension or none and the silly 12 point 10mm works fine there. But... some monkey has tightened this thing with an air gun, or similar.
Cuss and get out from under the truck to go find the breaker bar. Can’t find it. End up clamping the end of the ratchet in a vice grip and then with mechanics gloves on, pulling with both hands for all I’m worth. Bolt finally groans and comes loose without snapping off, thankfully.
Next up, let’s break the other bottom one loose... okay, saw on YT videos that the body of the gear reduction has a small cutout in it for a wrench, but not a socket. Again, why?! Damnit. Try u-joint on socket to get a tiny angle. Nope. Won’t stay on.
Go find 10mm ratcheting wrench. It’s also missing, but eventually turns up. Also grabbed old wobble headed monster spark plug socket wrench with angled arm on it... this will come in handy in a minute, but thought I might need it for this.
Ratcheting wrench is short. Think about grabbing a small breaker pipe to slip over it if this bolt is as tight as the first one. Decide that’s why I am wearing mechanics gloves, so I can really wrench on stuff and not worry as much about it popping loose and ripping hands up on things. Pull hard on shorter wrench with both hands... comes free a tiny bit easier. Arthritis in my thumbs is now real happy with my choice of activities today.
Then... the nut buster. And no, I don’t mean metal nuts. We’re talking mine. I realize the last bolt to break free is on top of the starter. And pointed forward, and at least two videos have shown people reaching this thing from above, but they always say that and skip that part in the video. Now I see why.
I climb on top of the engine and wrestle myself around so I can see and reach down there. It’s WAY down there. I realize the only way I’m reaching this thing is by lying flat on top of the valve cover. Crap! Ok.
So I lay there and mess around for like ten minutes trying to get this stupid ratchet on to the bolt and angles in such a way as I can put some leverage on it. And i try, and try. And then I wiggle too far forward and start sliding. And my junk, even protected by my jeans, gets hung up on the fan shroud, but I’m still sliding. Owwwwww! Son of a... I drop the wrench and proceed to half jump and half fall off the front of the truck.
Alright now I mad and my right giblet hurts. Haha. I decide to go get another cup of coffee and think about this and look for any videos on how to get to this bolt, specifically.
And I find this old guy linked below. And I am very happy I did. He’s cussing out the youngsters for suggesting coming from the top, too, and that matched my mood after smashing the boys.
I get the right length extension and crank on this bolt and it’s in there almost as tight as the first. It feels like it breaks free, so I pull the wrench out and realize out of the small pile of 10mm 12point sockets I’d grabbed, I had slapped the cheapest POS “made in Taiwan” one on the end of that extension, and it’s now missing a large chunk of itself. LOL. Piece of garbage. I cuss and laugh that at least I destroyed it so it’ll never get used again. Reach for a trust old Craftsman socket to match the rest of the get-up in my hand, slap it on, and reach up there and do the trick again.
Whale on that stupid bolt until it comes loose. Another pull with both hands and wait for the wrench to slip and smash some knuckles fun, but doesn’t happen. It comes loose. Give myself a finger cramp reaching up from behind and taking the bolt the rest of the way out with fingers bent in a backward direction. My thumbs really love me now.
Anyway, get the stupid starter down, and those videos were right, plenty of room to swing it out and angle it and drop it down, and even though it weighs a ton, gravity is helping in this portion of the job.
Take it in the garage, take it apart, rebuild it, and all looks good. Well looks as expected anyway. Copper is well last half gone on the contact that always burns up on these, and I have to whack on the deformed piece with a hammer on the edge of the workbench to get it off of the copper bolt, that’s getting re-used.
Then I notice there’s a large aluminum spacer hanging off of the bendix side of it, since while moving this starter around the bench, it finally pops off, and I wonder who the genius was that decided to use a 3/4” aluminum spacer between this starter and the hole it goes into. Again, why?! Are you just TRYING to make this harder than it needs to be?! Jerks!
This little aluminum triangle of stupidity is now loose (dirt and crud kinda hold it to the starter when you first take it off, and yeah I know I could have cheated and slapped a little gasket sealer or something between the two to temporarily stick them together while I put it back in)... plus the whole thing needed a bit of cleaning the crud off to inspect the rest of it... and cleaning up the dirty bendix, etc.
So ... now I know that when I go back to the truck and go to lift this starter above my head, I’ll have to make sure this stupid spacer comes along for the ride, stays on, and doesn’t rotate so all the bolts can go back in. Argh. Azzzzzhats.
So anyway, back under the truck, another 15 minutes of cussing, grunting, and trying to balance this heavy ass starter with one hand, while lining it up with the other, and making sure that aluminum spacer is not turned, and then left-handedly threading the first bolt I took out back in, because it’s the easiest to get fingers around... and the silly thing is hanging there again.
Reverse the trick in the video of going over the top from the other side and starting that bolt and the other one wi only wrench access, and now it’s dark and the temp has started to plummet. Go inside and get headlamp and a flashlight. Freaking winter.
Climb back under, connect up the big and small electrical connections, pull pile of tools and blue tarp out from under the truck, and climb in...
It starts right up. Yay. Wait for good oil pressure and the ammeter to chill out a bit, and then turn it off and start it like five more times. Fixed! Okay now we will have to drive it around the block to get it warm enough to turn off the grid heaters so the alternator can actually finish charging the battery back up.
New crappy Chinese starter? $90 if you buy one. Denso OEM replacement starter, built right? $170.
Kit with plunger and contacts? $25.
So, I’m happy.
But as always, working on Dodge/Chrysler products always leaves me wanting to go find their engineers and kick them square in the nuts. This time, they smashed mine. LOL.
Another new thing to note. Bright sunny days and not working in the garage, my transition lenses are a total PITA too. I need to have a clear set of safety lenses made up that aren’t for shootings but are for lying under cars in high UV.
Lifting them up to see enough to find the nuts and bolts, and then putting them back down was like doing all of this with a welders helmet on. LOL. Frack! I’m usually in the garage where the UV isn’t as intense.
My thumbs hurt. As usual. Oh well. Saved $70-150 depending on replacement starter and the thing is fine. Next time it needs contacts and a plunger, it’ll need new brushes too. $50. Maybe $40.
(That it’s a known problem is a problem in and of itself... why the hell does the thing eat one contact and always one contact, and they’ve never come up with a better design for that solenoid? The gear reduction and starter motor are nearly indestructible, but that stupid Denso plunger and contacts just burn away over time...)
Anyway, it made it 156,000 miles and who knows how many starts, so it was time...
Grab a coffee and head to the truck, remove battery cables... since we’re going to be messing with a starter, and since it’s a manual, made sure it was chocked and out of gear with the parking brake set... ok belt and suspenders complete, I get under the truck.
Find the starter. Had watched a few YT videos and all are pretty vague about getting this thing out but all looked like there’s plenty of room to work.
Learned from the videos that Dodge uses 12 point 10mm bolts to hold this thing in. For god’s sake, why? What a PITA.
Ok, recon complete, go digging for the 12 point sockets and of course, the six million 10mm sockets are scattered all over the garage. I really need to sort the tools and clean up the toolboxes and lay them all back out properly. Too many “grab a pile of tools and toss them in a tool bag” quick jobs lately.
I get the tools and back under the truck, and pull the 14mm nut and the 7mm nut off the electrical connections. Again, why 7mm?! Damnit just use a 10mm on that second one. More freaking sockets. I take like five socket wrenches under there with me so I can just leave “whatever works” assembled as complete wrenches for the reassembly later.
Then I start messing with the “special” bolts. And I mean the old school mean meaning of special, these bolts are retarded. 10mm 12 points with an angled shoulder on them. Why?! Just use a damned normal 12... freaking Denso...
The bottom drivers side bolt is in a lovely position, any combination of ratchet and extension or none and the silly 12 point 10mm works fine there. But... some monkey has tightened this thing with an air gun, or similar.
Cuss and get out from under the truck to go find the breaker bar. Can’t find it. End up clamping the end of the ratchet in a vice grip and then with mechanics gloves on, pulling with both hands for all I’m worth. Bolt finally groans and comes loose without snapping off, thankfully.
Next up, let’s break the other bottom one loose... okay, saw on YT videos that the body of the gear reduction has a small cutout in it for a wrench, but not a socket. Again, why?! Damnit. Try u-joint on socket to get a tiny angle. Nope. Won’t stay on.
Go find 10mm ratcheting wrench. It’s also missing, but eventually turns up. Also grabbed old wobble headed monster spark plug socket wrench with angled arm on it... this will come in handy in a minute, but thought I might need it for this.
Ratcheting wrench is short. Think about grabbing a small breaker pipe to slip over it if this bolt is as tight as the first one. Decide that’s why I am wearing mechanics gloves, so I can really wrench on stuff and not worry as much about it popping loose and ripping hands up on things. Pull hard on shorter wrench with both hands... comes free a tiny bit easier. Arthritis in my thumbs is now real happy with my choice of activities today.
Then... the nut buster. And no, I don’t mean metal nuts. We’re talking mine. I realize the last bolt to break free is on top of the starter. And pointed forward, and at least two videos have shown people reaching this thing from above, but they always say that and skip that part in the video. Now I see why.
I climb on top of the engine and wrestle myself around so I can see and reach down there. It’s WAY down there. I realize the only way I’m reaching this thing is by lying flat on top of the valve cover. Crap! Ok.
So I lay there and mess around for like ten minutes trying to get this stupid ratchet on to the bolt and angles in such a way as I can put some leverage on it. And i try, and try. And then I wiggle too far forward and start sliding. And my junk, even protected by my jeans, gets hung up on the fan shroud, but I’m still sliding. Owwwwww! Son of a... I drop the wrench and proceed to half jump and half fall off the front of the truck.
Alright now I mad and my right giblet hurts. Haha. I decide to go get another cup of coffee and think about this and look for any videos on how to get to this bolt, specifically.
And I find this old guy linked below. And I am very happy I did. He’s cussing out the youngsters for suggesting coming from the top, too, and that matched my mood after smashing the boys.
I get the right length extension and crank on this bolt and it’s in there almost as tight as the first. It feels like it breaks free, so I pull the wrench out and realize out of the small pile of 10mm 12point sockets I’d grabbed, I had slapped the cheapest POS “made in Taiwan” one on the end of that extension, and it’s now missing a large chunk of itself. LOL. Piece of garbage. I cuss and laugh that at least I destroyed it so it’ll never get used again. Reach for a trust old Craftsman socket to match the rest of the get-up in my hand, slap it on, and reach up there and do the trick again.
Whale on that stupid bolt until it comes loose. Another pull with both hands and wait for the wrench to slip and smash some knuckles fun, but doesn’t happen. It comes loose. Give myself a finger cramp reaching up from behind and taking the bolt the rest of the way out with fingers bent in a backward direction. My thumbs really love me now.
Anyway, get the stupid starter down, and those videos were right, plenty of room to swing it out and angle it and drop it down, and even though it weighs a ton, gravity is helping in this portion of the job.
Take it in the garage, take it apart, rebuild it, and all looks good. Well looks as expected anyway. Copper is well last half gone on the contact that always burns up on these, and I have to whack on the deformed piece with a hammer on the edge of the workbench to get it off of the copper bolt, that’s getting re-used.
Then I notice there’s a large aluminum spacer hanging off of the bendix side of it, since while moving this starter around the bench, it finally pops off, and I wonder who the genius was that decided to use a 3/4” aluminum spacer between this starter and the hole it goes into. Again, why?! Are you just TRYING to make this harder than it needs to be?! Jerks!
This little aluminum triangle of stupidity is now loose (dirt and crud kinda hold it to the starter when you first take it off, and yeah I know I could have cheated and slapped a little gasket sealer or something between the two to temporarily stick them together while I put it back in)... plus the whole thing needed a bit of cleaning the crud off to inspect the rest of it... and cleaning up the dirty bendix, etc.
So ... now I know that when I go back to the truck and go to lift this starter above my head, I’ll have to make sure this stupid spacer comes along for the ride, stays on, and doesn’t rotate so all the bolts can go back in. Argh. Azzzzzhats.
So anyway, back under the truck, another 15 minutes of cussing, grunting, and trying to balance this heavy ass starter with one hand, while lining it up with the other, and making sure that aluminum spacer is not turned, and then left-handedly threading the first bolt I took out back in, because it’s the easiest to get fingers around... and the silly thing is hanging there again.
Reverse the trick in the video of going over the top from the other side and starting that bolt and the other one wi only wrench access, and now it’s dark and the temp has started to plummet. Go inside and get headlamp and a flashlight. Freaking winter.
Climb back under, connect up the big and small electrical connections, pull pile of tools and blue tarp out from under the truck, and climb in...
It starts right up. Yay. Wait for good oil pressure and the ammeter to chill out a bit, and then turn it off and start it like five more times. Fixed! Okay now we will have to drive it around the block to get it warm enough to turn off the grid heaters so the alternator can actually finish charging the battery back up.
New crappy Chinese starter? $90 if you buy one. Denso OEM replacement starter, built right? $170.
Kit with plunger and contacts? $25.
So, I’m happy.
But as always, working on Dodge/Chrysler products always leaves me wanting to go find their engineers and kick them square in the nuts. This time, they smashed mine. LOL.
Another new thing to note. Bright sunny days and not working in the garage, my transition lenses are a total PITA too. I need to have a clear set of safety lenses made up that aren’t for shootings but are for lying under cars in high UV.
Lifting them up to see enough to find the nuts and bolts, and then putting them back down was like doing all of this with a welders helmet on. LOL. Frack! I’m usually in the garage where the UV isn’t as intense.
My thumbs hurt. As usual. Oh well. Saved $70-150 depending on replacement starter and the thing is fine. Next time it needs contacts and a plunger, it’ll need new brushes too. $50. Maybe $40.
