every once in a great while i will turn my starter and it will make a grinding noise, as if i were turning it with the car already running. i would simply back off, wait till i heard the gears stop, and then turn it again and it would start up great. i assumed that the gears had just gotten a little out of place and needed to realign.

today i went to start the car and it made that grinding noise 3 times in a row, which was alarming, before starting up great. should i get a new starter?

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God took you away, then brought you back to me.

Starter drive has finally wore out. Find a local electrical shop that does good work and get them to rebuild it for you. I had mine redone for $40. Or you can rebuild it yourself. Dan has instructions.

You can go to a mini starter, or rebuild your old one, but don't buy a remanufactured starter. They are junk about like everything else that has been "remanufactured" .

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

i remember dan giving the name of midwestern rotary electric, or something close, in wisconsin for starters and alternators. i guess i woud weigh time/cost of a starter from them vs doing it myself. dan, what are my options?

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God took you away, then brought you back to me.

Depends on what you can find locally for reliable auto electric rebuilders. What have you got on it now for a starter? Is it an original unit or a remanufactured item? Take a careful look at the aluminum nose housing: Is it perfectly smooth, or has it got a sort of sandy texture to it?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Instead of you shipping it out to the midwest somewhere you can just take it to Franklin Battery in Warner Robins. They did a great job on my starter. I will PM you the phone number and address if you like. Let me know.

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

starter is a duralast DL3257 with a very rusted nose and a white ceramic looking body.

i think my best bet is to rebuild or buy a new starter because this is my only vehicle and spare time is at a premium. so if it is something i could tackle in a few hours, i think it would be fun, although all that rust on the starter might make it a pain in the neck.

i just wanted to weigh the price of a new one with the difficulty of rebuilding the old one myself.

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God took you away, then brought you back to me.

Duralast = "remanufactured" garbage. Not worth rebuilding, don't spend any money on it.

Got decent junkyards near you? Go get a starter for a '99 Dodge Dakota with 5.2 V8 engine. (Or you can search for the same on www.car-part.com ). It'll look different but fit and work great for you.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

thanks for the info,
in doing the search i found a lot of dodge 1500 trucks that had the 5.2 engine, will these have the same starter as the dakota? also, there are more 2000 and 2001 models than 99, are those good as well?
a couple of the dealers listed the engine as a 318, i found that a bit curious. not that i don't miss cubic inches.

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God took you away, then brought you back to me.

Hi 75,

For half a lifetime I have enjoyed rebuilding these starters. My curse is I do it all once having it on the bench and it isn't something you can do in a couple of hours, especially the first time you ever did one. Little things like making sure you don't wring off the soldered wire inside the solonoid can, cleaning the case interior and adding in new brushes...all fun but slow. I have 3 or 4 right now I built cause I had them and put them on my parts shelf...but when it came time to install my new engine, I turned to one of the minis to see about this starter torque stuff I had been hearing about. Well, the new starters, for the money, much as I hate to say it, I believe are a better bang for the buck. Since I always think the old stuff is better, it is really painful to have to admit this! The little starter from the junkyard cost less than the NOS solonoid, rubber cover, brushes, end plate and bearings to rework the old starter.
rock
'64d100

The car-part.com search results show only direct interchanges, so if a different-than-specified year, make, model or engine is in the search results, it fits/works correctly.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.