Topic: Trevoroni's '92 Loyale : Something's wrong with me

[trevoroni]

Looks like I spoke to soon, it took a few turns of the key to get the starter to engage this morning.
I ordered a new set of contacts for the solenoid so hopefully that will fix the problem for good.
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B001SNT2BG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That Amazon Prime trial that I signed up for this month has come in handy. All my Christmas shopping done, and car parts without having to go into town! Plus, The Grand Tour on Thursday nights without having to use alternate means. I might have to sign up for it once the trial is over.

[trevoroni]

Hey I have an idea! Let's wait until one of the coldest days of the year to fix the problem that's been a minor issue for over a year! And do it in the dark the evening before you have to take the car to work in the morning!  And hung over from a Christmas party the night before too!

Over the past week the starter has been getting worse until Sunday when it wouldn't engage no matter how many turns of the key I tried. I was hoping to get it fixed on Saturday or earlier in the day Sunday but we got busy with Christmas stuff so I had no luck finding any time.

So Sunday evening around 6pm in the cold and dark I started to remove the starter from the car. It only took 30 minutes or so to get it removed from the car and into the warm house to dismantle the solenoid.
Luckily it can be removed from the top of the engine so I didn't even have to crawl in the snow.






As suspected one of the contacts was worn to the point that it was almost completely gone.

Another 30 minutes or so out in the cold and it was back in the car.

While I had it apart again I did a better job of wiring in the relay, with an actual relay receptacle and better connections with solder and heat shrink tubing instead of electrical tape. But no pictures because dark and frostbite.



So hopefully the problem is fixed for good now.

[trevoroni]

The starter is officially fixed for good! Haven't had any problems since replacing the contacts.

The throttle cable was frozen/sticky this morning.
After starting it and warming it up for 5 minutes or so I got into it to leave for work and gave it a little gas...
Bouncing off the rev limiter at nearly -30* with a slightly warm engine is good for things right?
I turned it off and managed to free the cable. Needless to say I took the gravel roads a little farther than normal before hitting the highway to let it warm up some more.

She has been a beast in the snow though. With the winds yesterday there was some pretty good drifts to plow through on my way home. The biggest being a hard packed 18" one for about 30ft up the hill on our driveway. It took a few runs to get through but she made it. It might have helped that the wife broke a trail (and got stuck in the Crosstrek) heading to work before I got home. I was impressed none the less.