does this sound like a starter to you?

So the neverending saga with my saab has come down to me having the starter rebuilt, new battery leads, and a new battery.. and the car still cranks slow. Today, after 15 seconds of cranking on the new battery leads (car almost started) I noticed smoke rising from engine compartment.

Seems the new positive lead is getting so hot it is melting the cover. The only reason I can think of for the starter to be drawing that much amperage is because it has an issue that was not resolved with the rebuild. What does the greater GRM community say?

When you say rebuilt, did someone take the end off, look at the brushes, paint it black and charge you money? If so, it sounds like it only has value as a core for a good quality exchange starter- as in Bosch or factory rebuilt. In modern starter purchasing, cheap = setting your money on fire.

If it smoked the length of the cable, its unlikely that anything other than the starter is going to draw enough amperage to bake the cable. If it smoked a particular spot, like near the crimped on end, you may have high resistance there. Also, remember that you have to flow exactly the same amount of amperage back up the ground cable as came out the positive cable.

positive lead for the saab is strange. It goes from the battery to a crimped on ring at the starter.. and then continues to the alternator. As for the smoking.. the bolt where the ring connects to the starter was too hot to touch (I know the hard way)

As part of my troubleshooting, I have been running a jumpercable from the starter to the negative terminal on the battery to try and make sure it was not a ground problem. Tomarrow I would use the jumper to supply raw amerage to the starter from the battery.

And yes.. there is a guy in town who only rebuilds starter and alternators.

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but have you made sure that the engine turns freely and the starter is getting a clean hit on the ring gear? Also, not to put down your rebuilder, since I don't know him, but are you sure He's completly checked out your starter, including putting the armature on a growler to check it for internal faults? Two things that I know well are SAABs and electric motors, and something is just not adding up. (I've owned mostly SAABs since the early ninties and have been an electric vehicle/forklift mechanic since the late ninties, so I can speak with some authority on this thread). If an electric motor has an internal fault in the armature like a short or crack in the core, it might look OK and bench test OK, but fail under a real load, and draw masive amperage as you have described. If you think that your faulty little 12v starter motor can smoke a power cable, you should see what a bad armature on a 48v drive motor can do! My advise is to go to your favorite chain auto parts store that offers life time replacement and get a starter there, or if you want a known good used starter, pm me.

sent you a PM Andy

I was looking at remanufactored starters online.. and came across something interesting. Seems they list a 9 and 11 tooth starters. Would using the wrong tooth number cause the problems I am seeing?

I had a boat that would do this.

1.Turned out the first time that windings in the starter had rusted from water - dead short. 2. Next time - battery leads not clean. Very hot. Wire brush and re-tighten - much better.