Starter issue

[Tomahawk30]

Having some starter problems in the 72 Cheyenne K20 I brought home today. I've done some searching and found similar issues, but I haven't found one that describes the same thing exactly.

Brought the truck home today with no problems at all (except the really bad exhaust leak on the driver side manifold where the manifold connects to the pipe). Got it home, unloaded it and shut it off while I wrapped things up with the trailer. Fired it back up to go for a spin, but the starter kept spinning after it disengaged from the flywheel. I shut the key off and the engine died, but the starter still kept spinning. I ended up pulling the battery lead to get it to stop. Now if I try to reconnect the positive lead, there's some pretty healthy sparking going on.

My first guess thought is a short on the ignition switch to starter wire. I couldn't see anything obvious, but it was getting dark so I didn't spend a bunch of time on it. I've also read that the solenoid could be stuck in place so the circuit is kept intact. Would that cause sparking when i try to reattach the positive lead even with the key switch off? I'll do some additional troubleshooting tomorrow when I have some daylight, but thought I'd see if anyone has any ideas.

[Tomahawk30]

I should also mention that I removed the positive wire from the battery to kill it because (lucky me) I'd noticed earlier today that the clamp wasn't tight and could be removed easily. I'd planned to tighten it up when I got it home and forgot about it until I suddenly was in a rush to kill power to the starter! The more I'm reading, the more I think the solenoid is stuck. I might tap it with a hammer in the AM to see if it disconnects once. If that's the issue I'll start looking for either a solenoid or a whole starter.

[68gmsee]

also The battery post was loose probably cause it's done this before. It would cause sparks while reattaching the cable since the starter is still energized. Disconnect the wire from ignition at the soleoid and check to see if it still sparks when reattaching. If it doesn't supect the ignition switch.

It may be just the solenoid but if it's had these problems before it's possible the whole starter will have to be replaced sooner or later. I'd just get a complete starter/solenoid from auto parts and save a lot of time. Especially if it's an old one. I just looked and they're $50 at Autozone here in my area.

[Tomahawk30]

I just got an emailed from the previous owner, and he'd actually just replaced it with a reman unit from NAPA a couple months ago. I was planning to pull the starter today and take it to NAPA to test (my local store actually has a few guys that actually know their stuff pretty well), so I'll pull the solenoid wire first. If it's the ignition switch, I actually have a couple spares around to try.

Thanks for the suggestion!

[Tomahawk30]

Oh, and the PO says he's not had any starter issues at all. Not sure why the battery cable was loose...

[Tomahawk30]

Fixed! I found a loose "S" post on the solenoid when I pulled the starter. I tightened it and took it to NAPA for them to test. Everything checked out fine, so I hooked it back and up and tried to attach the battery cable. Same problem. Moved to the ignition switch and it looked good inside and out. However, the pigtail was melted pretty good. So I pulled the pigtail from my donor cab (that thing has paid for itself about 10 times over by now!) and replaced it. Fires right up and everything is good now! (Well, as far as starting and running... Still some other issues to fix.)

[68gmsee]

Super! And thanks for posting the fix. It helps others that may have seen the thread and may have a similar problem in the future.