bad starter?

[jeepsterryan]

What are the symptoms of a bad VW starter? Our 1600cc beetle cranks really slowly or not at all (just a single click). The car has a new battery and has been completely rewired. It was working fine until a couple of weeks ago. The temperature here has dropped to between 20 and 30 degrees. If we add jumper cables from another running car it marginally improves the problem and we can sometimes get it to crank enough to start, but usually only a couple of tries and then it's back to slow or no cranking.

Being my first bug I wanted some input before a yank the starter and replace it. Is slow/no cranking a common symptom of a bad starter or should I be looking at another issue like battery cables, wiring, different motor oil (due to the cold weather), etc.?

[earthquake]

If you have 20-50 oil that could be part of your problem, what is your timing set at? if it is to far advanced that will cause it to turn over slowly.

eQ
_________________
74 CLASS 11 LOOK-A-LIKE
69 DUNE BUGGY
79 INTERNATIONAL SCOUT II
05 SCION XB SERIES RELEASE 2[#437]
95 Chevy C3500 dually
98 Ford E150
Link to Kelly J. Nolte 3/20/53 - 11/6/08
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DEATH TO CHINGERS!
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[jeepsterryan]

The timing could be the issue. We recently had it at the shop trying to pass emissions. The tech messed with the timing and I'm not sure where he left it. But, that is about when it started to have trouble.

The cold/oil may be contributing as well. I don't know what oil it's running. It just has what was in it when we bought it. I've been planning on changing it for a synthetic. I'll ldo that tomorrow.

[YDBD]

Battery Cables
Ground strap between transaxle and pan
_________________
'56 pan Dune Buggy since '69
don't live in the past...but when I did:
'67 bug
'64 baja
'60 dune buggy
'73 Personenkraftwagen Type 182 "Thing"

[Q-Dog]

A worn out starter bushing can also cause the starter to turn slow. I would clean up all the cables and ground strap first.
_________________
Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[Wulfthang]

You said it was rewired recently so I would check to be sure that the charging system is working correctly. Check the battery cables and ground cables. Lastly, check the timing. Many techs will retard the timing to help it get thru emissions testing. The retarded timing helps to keep stuff burning in the exhaust system which will lower emissions but will cause overheating. Once it's passed emissions, the tech will often just give the distributor "a quarter turn or so" to advance it again. If it's too advanced, it'll make starting hard because it kicks back.

[dustymojave]

Bug motors don't like synthetic oil Flat tappets will grind the cam flat pretty quick. That's why people talk about oil with zddp. Zinc is the deal. Better to use oil for a diesel. For cold weather, 10-30 oil.

There's miles of discussion of this stuff in the engine section.

VWs tend to have a long path from the battery to the ignition switch and back to the starter motor. So sometimes it helps to put in a Ford starter relay (1950 - 1980s) and bigger cables on that. Old school remedy that works. Using jumper cables SHOULD be fixing that, but if it's still slow, check timing and battery cable from battery to starter as well as checking the ground side of the circuit. Does it have a ground strap from trans to frame?
_________________
Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[Vanillagurilla]

Test the battery, if you had a weak battery already and it gets cold they dont respond very well.

[jeepsterryan]

Thanks for all of the tips. We checked everything mentioned here and had no change. So, we bought a starter last night and threw it in. Problem solved! Starts almost instantly now even when it is cold out.