Hi Folks,

Son away at college with car, reports car wont crank (started right up when he parked it yesterday). He has lights on dash, headlights and chime. When turned to start it makes a single click. Same with car in Park and Neutral. Had him try to jump car with same result. Battery seems fine however when I asked him to twist terminal clamps the negative came off. After tightening it up, same. Asked him to find a VOM to chk voltage. He's working that now. No accessories left on and battery cells full of electrolyte. Anything I'm missing here? If starter stuck, I can't remember if it's accessable fm top to give a rap with a hammer. Anyone have a picture of the starter location?

 

Sorry, thought I had a pic.

Anyway, try this. Tell him to stand right by the pass side tire and look towards the drivers side tire. The starter is under a bit of "piping and that"....or tell him to follow the positive cable from the battery, yes it splits. One side goes to the under hood fuse panel, the other goes to the starter.

EDIT: I did have something. I know it looks bad...but you see the :green: that is the starter,-left center of the pic- on the DX - Carb'd vs this LXi things are a bit dif but the same

 

Thanks Poorman, will give it a try. Hope it's not too complicated for him- he's a graphic design major....

 

Problem fixed with hammer and drift. Battery was good and I had my son whack the starter with a hammer and drift pin while a friend cranked it. Started right up. Will think of changing it when I get it home in a month. Does anyone know if the starter for this car (88 Accord DX with AT/AC and 2 bbl Carb) is the same as the 5 speed manual? The one on Amazon for $63 says it fits however it also says its for the 5 speed.

 

You could replace the solenoid and the contacts inside. It is a pretty simple DIY.

 

Great! Is there a link in this forum to perform that service?

 

The manual and the automatics use different starters

 

There may be a problem. The manual transmission uses a Denso starter which can have the contacts replaced. The Mitsuba starter is on the AT, which is what you have.

I have only seen the contact/plunger replacements done on the Denso starter. I don't know if the Mitsuba starter can be repaired the same way.

Here is a video on the Denso starter:
Search for v=cWm8j1SkUD8 on YouTube for a pretty good video.

 

Where do I get the contacts I assome these are brushes) and is there a DIY procedure you can steer me to??

 

Well they are certainly not brushes, from the video they are indeed a set of contacts. Will try and determine if he Mistuba can be rebuilt. Thanks for the tip here!