79 Brave starter keeps frying out.

[TravelinDonkey]

        I have a 79 Brave 26RT. The starter went a couple of weeks ago.  I replaced it with a rebuild.  It started 4 times and then it stopped working. I replace it again and it starts got about a 4 starts from it before it dies out on me again. So now I'm stuck in a parking lot where they are looking for any reason to have it towed.  My wires and connections are good, correct and solid. What would be causing my starters to do this? I don't have any money to throw away, so I. Glad for the warranty.

[mytoolman]

I had the mystery starter stopped working situation some time ago also. Long story short.....make sure the grounds are functional. There needs to be at LEAST one nice heavy ground strap from the Engine to the frame. The connections need to be clean and the strap needs to be firmly attached. There needs to be a nice ground from the battery to the frame also. A poor ground will allow the starter to burn itself up....even one of these massively heavy metal starters....It was only after I burnt up the 2nd starter I had replaced(three including the original I bought the rV with which looked like it was recently installed just prior to my getting the rig) that I found my rig was missing the ground strap from the engine block to the frame... it was getting a ground only through the motor mount bolt to the frame and this is way too small of a surface area to ground...this lack of proper ground creates high resistance and starters get way hotter than they should if there is high resistance.

It wouldnt hurt to also look at the positive cable to verify it is making good contact.  just recently I had a battery die. It was an old battery and I had not been starting my RV so that battery was doomed by age mostly.  When I changed it out I was a bit rough in handling the cables that were attached to it. I remember  pulling the battery cables and in being so rough I actually loosened the positive cable where it is crimped in the terminal that bolts to the solenoid. There was no life at all trying to start my rig after replacing the battery. I went looking for a broken connection right away since it wanted to at least try to crank over priror to me messing with that battery....  I had to cut that cable and crimp a new terminal on it and then reattach the cable to the solenoid to make sure there was a complete circuit.....for it to again crank over like it should

[Mlw]

This is EXACTLY why I hate Chassis/Frame grounds. with an RV as old as ours you can be absolutely sure there is corrosion in places you least expect it.

How do you know your wires are OK? Use a multimeter and measure the voltage at your battery with everything switched off. then measure the voltage at the plus of your starter and the minus of the battery. If you have nothing you need to switch your contact on, but make absolutely sure that all power consumers are off to get an accurate reading. the voltage should be within 1 volt of the voltage measured at the poles. if not Clean the poles of the battery and your batteryconnector and the connection points at your starter. if you are sure the connection points are really clean and the resistance of the wire still gives more than 0.6 volts off, I'd replace the wire. Clean connection points and wires are bright and shiny and not dull and dirty.

Then you are going to measure the resistance of your ground. you take the plus connection at your battery and the minus at your starter. Again, more than 1 volt difference, see above. More then 0,6 volts resistance after you make sure the points are really clean: Replace your wire.

Next ALWAYS make DIRECT connections from the battery to the starter and NEVER use chassis grounds. It will only cause you headaches like this. I don't know the exact amount of amps used by our starters but they will lay in the 100 - 200 amps so using thicker wires then there are originally in there wouldn't hurt either. Ask your wireman for the correct thickness because I'm from Europe and we use Millimeters in stead of inches, so I'm bound to make mistakes there.