94 escort starter replacement

[fattmerris]

Last night my escort wouldn't start. Lights and radio came on but wouldn't turn over. Tried jumping with no luck. Had the battery checked and the guy said it was bad. With new battery there was still no luck. I finally push started it to get home. I'm suspecting the starter. When I turn the ignition, I get nothing but the relay click. The solenoid on the starter doesn't seem to be doing anything.
Am I safe in assuming its the starter? How do I remove it? I got two bolts off and can't find the third. Is it tucked back against the engine? Is there a third bolt?
Is the starter easy to change out? I'm tempted to have it towed in.
Any help is appreciated.

[fattmerris]

Is the solenoid seperate from the starter on the 94 escort? Can the solenoid alone be replaced? Is there and easy way to check if the solenoid is bad?

[jeffescortlx]

The Solinoid on 91-96 are internal, inside the starter, yes there is a third bolt, it's there not far from the other 2 you allready removed.

You might want to craw under the car and look to make sure both the large and small wire is plugged in to the starter.

It's not too hard to change out the starter, save your money and do it your self.

You can allways pick up a new starter than look at that to give you an idea on where the other bolt is.

[fattmerris]

I got the starter out and brought it in to Checker and it tested good. Any clue on what to check next? How do you check relays? How do you check the clutch switch?

[Jason168]

Hi,
How did you solve the problem? I got exactly the same question. We can dicuss this via email. My email accout: [email protected]

Thanks


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Originally Posted by fattmerris

Last night my escort wouldn't start. Lights and radio came on but wouldn't turn over. Tried jumping with no luck. Had the battery checked and the guy said it was bad. With new battery there was still no luck. I finally push started it to get home. I'm suspecting the starter. When I turn the ignition, I get nothing but the relay click. The solenoid on the starter doesn't seem to be doing anything.
Am I safe in assuming its the starter? How do I remove it? I got two bolts off and can't find the third. Is it tucked back against the engine? Is there a third bolt?
Is the starter easy to change out? I'm tempted to have it towed in.
Any help is appreciated.

[fattmerris]

I finally gave up and brought it in this morning. They said it was the ignition switch. $20 for the switch, $100 to put it in. I knew my starter was good. I took my jumper cable and went from battery pos to the small (S) terminal on the starter solenoid and the car started right up. I checked the clutch safety switch on the clutch pedal and it seemed to be fine. I messed around with the relays on the firewall trying to bypass them with no luck. The only thing I didn't check was the ignition switch. The schematic in my Chilton book was crap. With a better wiring diagram, I might have been able to sort it out. Oh well. They called me and said they opened up the steering column and crossed the wires on the switch and the car fired right up. I hope this helps you.

[Jason168]

I had exactly the same problem as Fattmerris. But
I finally figured out the problem. The
battery is dead. It can power the lights and radio but it cannot afford high current that is required to
start the car. After changing the battery, everything is OK.