Had to smack the starter this morning...

[treerootCO]

That is one of those....since you are already in there items.

Plunger, M - 28235-54380 - $20 if you pay full retail price...

 

[Red_Chili]

IME with minitrucks the plunger is good for two sets of contacts. The problem is that the contacts do not erode evenly, which cants the plunger until it doesn't 'make'. But yeah, for $20 (or less)...

 

[Rzeppa]

Thanks Jeff, just the experience I was looking for. One advantage you had in the 75 over the 80 was a clutch and a hill... and a method a lot of us have perfected at some point in our lives. Anyway I'm going to tear into this on Saturday, and now that the snow is off the streets the 80 can stay parked until then.

I would add to that that if you are stuck in a snowdrift, the solenoid won't make contact but the battery still has plenty of juice, you can actually bump-start yourself with an 8274. Terry Holben and I did this

 

[Rzeppa]

IME with minitrucks the plunger is good for two sets of contacts. The problem is that the contacts do not erode evenly, which cants the plunger until it doesn't 'make'. But yeah, for $20 (or less)...

Exactly right. Metal transfers from one and not the other, and the disk gets crooked when it slams down there. Once you've had a worn one apart on your workbench it becomes obvious.

Dion at Mountain States gave me a handful (2 of each they had) for free, I found the two that were closest to what I needed and a little work with the dremel, hammer and vise and they were just like new OEM.

 

[nakman]

successful r&r

The hardest part of the job, as we all know, is getting the starter off. Took me a solid hour to do that, then another 30 minutes to swap the contacts and plunger, then about 20 minutes to get it buttoned back up... so a good 2 hour job.

My plunger was easily as worn as either of the two contacts, maybe even more.

 

[nakman]

Not wanting to mix up any of the little bits, I did one side at a time. Again, the plunger was worse looking than either of the two contacts. Also one of my new contacts was a little smaller than the one that came out of there, but I chose not to worry about that. Sure is a satisfying feeling hearing the truck fire right up after you get it all back together, here are the rest of the pictures:

 

[Rzeppa]

That looks exactly as I remember the 1HZ solenoid. And as I recall, getting the starter out/in was the biggest part of the project. I had to take the oil filter out on the 1HZ to get the starter motor to clear.

Hopefully you found what I did: once you have the starter motor solenoid out and look at it, it all becomes fairly obvious.

Your ring looks a lot more pitted than mine was; I just took a wire wheel to it and smoothed out the contact surfaces, but yours looks like replacement was the right thing to do given the loss of copper. In the photo of the contacts, that pretty much looks like my recollection of the difference in + versus - contacts in terms of metal loss.

After all the starters I've replaced on 22REs, 1HZs, Chevey 350s etc., I have become so thankful that on an F or 2F it's about 15 minutes instead of an hour job.