car trouble help

[benzimm86]

You may laugh at this but it really sucks.

so yesterday my brother and i are working on my friends car. He wanted us to change the starter. Not hard right? well we take the old one out and put the new one in. We turn the key and it sounds like just the starter is spinning and the car is not. So we thought maybe the starter and flywheel are not lined up right. so we move it around and still nothing. We then decide we are going to bench test it to make sure it is engaging correctly. As we are taking it out, we forget to disconnect the neg from the battery. The starter starts arcing and all of a sudden a red liquid starts pouring out of one of the hoses. After ruling out different fluids we discovered it was transmission fluid. After it stopped leaking (a gallons worth of liquid) we put some J&b Weld over the holes and let it sit for an hour. We then went back to work on the car. Put the starter back in since it worked fine on the bench, and now when we turn the key the car lights dim, radio turns off, and the starter clicks once. We thought maybe the battery was dead so we hooked up a charger as well as jumper cables. We then tested the battery with a multimeter and it came back with 12.96 volts. We are kinda at a lose right now as to what might be wrong.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Try putting a load on the battery, like getting a small resistor and put between the positive leads and test it that way, may be possible it can't hold a load but can hold a charge. Also... Make sure none of the electrical system became damaged...

 

[benzimm86]

that all seems way over my head!!!!

 

[mac_mogul]

that all seems way over my head!!!!

so why are you working on cars??

 

[superdave1984]

You probably had a bad starter out of the box. That sounds like the bendix was bad in the new one. (Either that or you have teeth damaged on the starter or flywheel) Testing it on a machine will say it is fine. Now you may have burned your solenoid. Take the starter back and get a new one. If they give you any crap, get mad and whip out that warranty slip. You did get the lifetime warranty right? They will replace it and if they won't, lob a call to their corporate HQ.
As for that JB Weld fix, cut the line with a tubing cutter, put a piece of high pressure rubber hose over the line and clamp it down good. Oh, and clean the metal with brake cleaner before you do this. JB Weld won't last very long on that.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

It could have contaiminated the tranny fluid... You REALLY do not want that. But be best to replace the entire line unless its like aluminum all the way to the radiator....

 

[benzimm86]

i was more or less supervising the project. my brother had changed out the starter in his jeep before with no problems. i think its about time to give up the car repair dreams!!!

 

[Sui]

First off why were you changing the starter? If I had to guess then I'd say either it was an initial misdiagnoses, or you bought the incorrect starter, with a defective starter as a distant 3rd. Fixing a transmission line with JB weld is a definite ...... error. I'm not sure how you screwed this up in the first place, this is high pressure hose/line, its not like you can nick it and spring a leak. Anyway damage is done, drain the transmission, you _should_ replace the filter while your at it, replace the line or hose you "damaged", then refill with what is recommended for that transmission.

Btw someone did mention a way to patch a line, but it can cause problems later on, and more important to me it looks like a hack, which is why I would just replace the line.

 

[Crysalis]

amazing!!! Tranny fluid doesn't come out easy and you just found a way!

w00t!

I'm with Mac on this one

 

[iambrian]

it could be the alternator, that story sounds like what happened to my car last week