UPDATE: Took the new Mitsu starter to the local shop and had it tested which came back good. But on the truck it just spins, I have no idea where else to look, anybody know a great 7.3 mechanic?

I just swapped out my starter, old one was dead. Called Nations and wanted to buy the Denso as the price was good. He talked me into the Mitsubishi saying most of the guys at the shop used it and their customers had success with it and could save a few bucks.

Turned the key and it just kinda hums/spins, there is no crank, there are obvious differences in this vs my old but is something else wrong with the truck or is it this starter is wrong?

starter - a set on Flickr

 

my 01 in signature came from factory with Mitsubishi,was still working when pulled & retired as spare at 210k.replaced with factory new Denso [ not china knock off ] been happy with Denso for over two years.If your wiring/batteries are fine,then you might of got a defective starter.

 

I've heard a lot more bad about the NipponDenso than the Mitsubishi.

I think you just got a "fluke". I'd just exchange it for another.

Pop

 

Ok, just wondering if anybody has come across this before, the fusible link behind the battery, cause a half working starter?

I tried doing as much research as possible and, all connections are good, the fuses in boxes are good, the relay on the fender behind battery gives same spinning to starter but no engagement just like trying to turn the key and the starter was taken off and used jumper cables to verify it works and does. Any guess to what I'm missing? Or if its the fuse link? Thankfully we just got another 6" of snow so the truck will sit in the drive for 2 more days of a break but hope to figure it out this weekend.

 

I installed the Mitsu from Nations about 18 months or so ago. Occasionally, it will spin and not completely throw itself into the flywheel, but otherwise has been perfect. Probably around 30K miles on it by now.

I've also ran the Denso-style (not genuine Denso) starters and will never buy one again. I also managed to pick up a couple of genuine Denso starters at my local rebuild shop and put them on the shelf for hot spares. I've been running a genuine Denso on my Excursion for about 12K miles with not even the first hiccup on it..

 

OEM Mitsubishi seemed good, but I had lots of problems with NAPA rebuilds of the Mitsu starter. Replaced 2 flywheels due to grinding.

Installed a genuine NipponDenso last year and it hasn't missed a beat. Expensive, but I think well worth the aggrivation of constantly replacing the "lifetime guaranteed" rebuilds.

 

If they didn't offer that "lifetime guarentee", they couldn't sell that crap to the masses!

Sounds good, but the reality sux.

Pop

 

You said that your old starter is dead. did you take it somewhere and get it checked out. Also, when I was have trouble with my starter. I called Nations and talked to them and I just changed out the solenoid on my starter. I bought the solenoid from them. If you still have your old starter, I would do this to have a spare. Have you had your new starter checked out. An issue with two starters may point to some other cause. Corrosion on the wires to the starter contact points from the key?

 

Talk about frustrating. Put the brand new starter on, then only spins, no engage. Take it off, test it by jumping to the battery and it kicks out but doesn't spin. Put it back on for some reason??? And tried testing solenoid, batteries, connections and test light on the starter while the keys being turned which tests ok. Taking this "new" starter to be tested tonight and see what happens.

 

The old solenoid had fried, I did take it to the store just for the heck of it and it was bad. Wanted an upgrade so went with this Mitsu and haven't had much luck. So old one is no longer around and it had been burnt up.

Weird to me is the truck was cranking and sounded like it almost turned over then all at once died and wouldn't make a noise. So killed the stater at that time, now that the new one is on I can't get it to do anything but spin. So something else happened at the time my old one blew.