Battery is brand new. Alternator brand new. And the starter is a brand new PowerMaster mini starter. My contacts are clean, and I also have new battery terminals.

The car starts cold every time. One time it randomly wouldn't start hot. You hear a "clunk" which sounds like the starter gear hitting they flywheel but won't crank. I did nothing but keep trying to start it, and it started 4 hours later no problem. My buddy said it didn't sound like a heat soak issue because there is starter activity, and it shouldn't take 4 hours to restart.

I wrapped the solenoid, and had no hot start problems for 2 weeks. This weekend I take a 15min drive to my fiances house. I go to restart, same thing "clunk". This time it took 8.5 hours to crank and restart (nothing was done to the car), I'm confused. After 8 hours the engine was cold. Not even warm. So I don't see how heat is playing a role. Yet it only does this on hot starts. All my starter wires run close to the header (long tubes), but they're not close to hitting, and for safe measure they're wrapped in heat shield tape. If it was a contact or wiring issue, why does it not do it ever on cold starts?

Do you guys think I just have a faulty starter? I know a lot of guys with mini starters and long tubes and they're fine and didn't even wrap there starter.

 

Start by sticking a shim in that thing first before you get too carried away, then if you still having problems, sounds like you got a bogus unit to me.

 

I was thinking of that also. I figure though if it was a shim issue, it shouldn't crank at all until the flywheel is moved a little. It happened again yesterday and my dad and I were going to jack up the car, remove the inspection cover, and see what's going on after work. I let it sit 8 hours while I went to work, I came home, fired right up.

 

I went through something similar with a Powermaster. It would not re-start hot sometimes. Returned it under warranty and the replacement has been fine for years.

8 hours to wait, however, maybe too long for a hot soak. Either way, I'd have a look at it and like suggested above, maybe add a shim first. Too tight will encourage it to hang up after the motor starts and cause that whine, but maybe you can't hear it with that starter.

My experience with the return through Powermaster was favorable.

 

I figured I'd update this for anyone that comes across this thread in the future. I finally got time to work on the car. I removed the inspection cover and my suspicions were correct. The starter gear was hitting the flex plate and not meshing. I shimmed the starter and problem solved. Starts cold and hot. Not sure why before it would start fine cold but not mesh with the flex plate when hot. I don't see the metal expanding anymore than 0.001-0.002" hot. But problem is solved. Needed quite a few shims.

 

Ok last update. Shimming didn't fix it. Problem came back after a few hot starts. And I shouldn't of needed as many shims as I had in there anyway. I called Powermaster. All my voltages were good. They kept thinking it was the purple ignition switch wire. They said I should have between 9-10 volts on it when cranking. I had 9.5. And the gear popped out exactly like it was suppose to when the purple wire seen voltage. I was a little weary because the starter came with no shims or bolts (it was suppose to), and the powermaster sticker on the side of it was not there. Powermaster had me send it back and Summit sent me a new starter. It had all the bolts/shims/stickers...etc And the problem is fixed. I probably have a good 40 hot starts on it and it cranks like a champ every time.

 

Doesn't it just mess up the entire logical trouble shooting procedure when the "new" part is faulty. We expect a quality part when we buy it new. Sounds like you may have gotten someone's returned part. Let us know if this one fails. Good luck with it.

 

Yes I agree. The time I spent trying to figure out the issue I could have been tuning it or doing other little things like installing my heated O2 sensor. But it's nice to drive it and not worry about getting stranded.

 

Seems to be a very common problem these days.

Maybe when troubleshooting guys problems on here , we should say take the " new" part back and get a replacement as the first course of action.

I have spend way too much time on here walking newbies through diagnostics ( esp elec circuits ) only to find out in the end like the OP did
that the replacement part they bought to solve their problem was faulty.

 

A lot of Powermaster stuff is refurb'ed and/or Chinese. Read the web site carefully. I had one quit pulling the drive back in completely after about only 50 starts. And, of course it started in tech inspection at the track. I $hitcanned it and bought a brand new genuine GM mini for a 96 LT1. No more cool "whine" but I expect it to outlast my old carcass.