The things we learn as yoots that come back later in life.

Yesterday, my neighbor asks me to help him with his riding lawn mower so I walk over. Said it wouldn't start, just makes a clicking sound when you turn the ignition switch. He charged the battery, but still just clicking sound when trying to start. Measure the batt voltage, seems good. Tried a LiPo jump start, still nothing. Won't turn over, but the starter relay works.

Then I remember from my days of being a yoot, with my 60 Chevy in high school, the bendix in the starter would occasionally stick and not engage. To fix it, I had to tap on the starter with a hammer or a nearby rock.

I asked my neighbor if he had a hammer handy and he did. I took the hammer and tapped on the starter 2 or 3 times, then tried the ignition switch and Voila, motor starts fine.

It will probably stick again of course, but at least he knows where the problem is.

YEE YEE, is this part of your troubleshooting procedure for starters?

Sometimes a drop of oil can be a permanent cure.

I had a 68 Galaxie that the start would over heat because of the headers running next to it. Always carried a can of R-12 with a valve and hose on it and give it a little shot to cool it down and it would work for a while.

Yeah I can remember hitting them with a hammer because they always had a warming printed on the about not hitting them with a hammer... But sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do... Dan

Grew up with my Dad in the garage wrenchin on cars. He's 69 and still doing it during retirement. He lives in a small community and he charges 50$hr. You can't beat that nowadays and he has a lot of customers.

Simple but elegant fix.

Just a little tap.

I tapped many starters heck even banged hard on a few. The old starters used field coils and you couldn't damage them. Most starters today use magnets that break when hitting the starter. Majority of the time the brushes are wore out and not making contact on the armature and that's what the tapping helps.
If need to tap it tap it on end where the brushes are .

A hammer wack will fix many issues

Yes. Indeed. Some situations require a bat as well.

That’s “SOP” around here. Big [censored] hammer too!

I laughed out loud! Sitting here by myself !

lol, being a carpenter I always had an assortment up to a 12# sledge.

I can attest to the fact that a cheby treefiddy starter will not take more than 2 sharp blows with a 32 oz. framing hammer, the third will split the aluminum back cover.

had a 76 k20 with a 350, 8" lift etc. (at least it was easy to get under) and got a tad upset with it one time, 150.00 later I had a new starter and battery and had learned another life lesson.

I made a comment today that we need a 40 bank charger and charging leads that drop down from the ceiling at every parking spot. Every car we work on is dead, or needs a little jump box to kick em off.



I have all my old boat chargers here at work…7 of them. Every one is plugged into something every night. Along with a few Shumachers, a cheap charger, and an Optima charger.

Unreal how many cars have $10,000 paint jobs and run like [censored] or have dead batteries.

76 Chevy pickup. If it didn’t start you opened the door, hold the key down, then slam the door. It would start every time.