Changing 1988 Comanche Starter

1. the most important for this job is to disconnect battery pole before you start to try to fix any on this starter!!!

Regards,

Ralf

Before you change the starter you need to check your battery cables carefully.

As for difficulty, > I think I need to replace the starter on my 1988 Jeep Comanche (L6 4.0) as

Goshi Key proclaimed:

Not that difficult. First you may want to check all cabling, including ground.

Goshi - Jeeps are notorious for having the ground between the engine and the body go bad and I would check this before going after the starter. Remember that the negative cable from the battery has two ends that you need to clean. Don't know what this particular Jeep has from the engine to the body, but find it and clean it, both ends. Clean both ends of the positive wire too. Tomes

ECHO: Wot the others said about cleaning the cables -- both ends -- first. Grounding issues are a very big deal with Jeeps.

Back a couple of years ago when I swapped out my starter on my `89 Cherokee I6 4.0L I found that I needed both sets of wrenches. Things that thread into the engine are metric, things that thread into the starter are SAE (or t'other way around). Mining a thread from 2003 I see that the lower bolt is SAE 9/16" and is easily approached from the front, the upper from the rear -- and it is in a really tight place. I broke the bolt loose with a box wrench and then use a 3/8" "wobble" extension (with a metric socket) to get the ratchet head into a place where I could swing it.

And I also made this observation:

There's only two wires, a control lead and the battery cable. When you put the new starter in, pay particular attention to which bolt the battery cable went to. Laying on your back in the driveway it will be easy to confuse the two and attach it to the wrong bolt. This will be Very Bad. You'll know by the huge spark when you try to put the battery cable back on the battery post if you've got it wrong.

Let us know how you make out.

Hi Goshi

The advice you were given was excellent. Always disconnect the battery before attempting to change the starter, and double check the grounds.

However, you may have a problem with the ignition switch or solenoid. I had this problem with my 87 Cherokee 4.0 last Christmas. The switch failed and I jump started from the solenoid (Ford type). I added a heavy duty momentary toggle switch in the dash directly to the solenoid. Then when the weather was nicer, I changed the ignition switch but left the starter switch in the dash.

I would not want to change the starter and still have the same problem.

Merrill

Goshi Key wrote:

Not too hard, but as the others mention, I would suspect wiring first.

One test is to turn on the headlights and watch then when someone tries the starter. If the lights dim, suspect the starter, if the lights don't dim, suspect a connection.

Mike

First, thanks to the whole gang for all the great advice, it certainly made it easier for me.

I checked and cleaned all the connections and was able to confirm that it was indeed the starter. Funny thing was that 4 days after making sure the connections were not the issue the thing started right up when my neighbor turned the key! but when we tried again 10 minutes later, it was back to being dead again. I was told that starters will do that.

I found a replacement starter at a local shop for a pretty good proice. It took a few days for me to get the time to do the work, but once I got to it the hardest part was getting one of the bolts off (finding the right position underneath was also a challenge at first). Now I've got a functional old truck once again and that makes me happy!

Thanks ALL:)