starter motor serviceing/how i did it

si_c1978

hi, as some may know from previous posts i have been suffering from issues when starting the car when warm,

at first i thought i had dropped a cell on my battery as when we tested it it was a little pants and when fully charged it did turn the motor over,
so i replaced the battery, same thing very lazy starting, charged new battery then fine for a few trips (probably didnt stop and start it to notice i still had a problem.
now nine out of ten times my car goes to work, so at the end of the day usually starts, so its ok i thought.....
then after a trip round to the shops then the curry house etc the last start was next to useless very lazy (my ecu needs to see 600+ revs before itll spark)
so i thought best test the alternator while its running im getting 14v so it must be fine,

anyhoo she let me down embarassingly yesterday as i had just run into a shop, i couldnt start her but i had parked on a hill so went to roll out only someone was infront of me boooooo! as i swang out of course when you move sideways across a hill its pretty bloody flat!!! :twisted:
after the oncoming traffic had to stop i had to quickly hop out and fred flinstone my car so it was pointing back down the hill and i was away! :oops:

so i have got off my lazy ass and had the motor off and stripped it cleaned it and reasssemled (ill post pics later maybe ive taken enough to do a how to) all is moving freely no play in the shaft magnetism is present(not sure how strong it needs to be tho,
i had a fair bit of carbon in there with quite a few copper particles?? would this hamper it much? (i know quite a bit about cnc DC motors and there wasnt as much as i would expect to find its just the copper particles that make me suspicious)

now can anyone tell me what kind of resistance i should expect to see across the starter motor terminals?
im going to try and start it anyway but pretty much if this doesnt work it'll be the only way i can test the motor any further.

thus ends my rambling any help gratefully recievd! :thumbup:

si_c1978

Re: starter motor serviceing

scratch that! im going t gve mysef a huge trumpet blowing! I WIN!
reassembled my starter motor and re-fitted it i then started her up which was more worrying than anything else!
fired up first time, so i let her run hot on the spot till the fan came on then shut her down and she re-started better than i can ever remember even on my old engine, have given it another five attempts since then and it turns and fires almost as if theres no comresson!!! Ducking glorous! 😃

ill post some pics later and try and do a write up and change the name of the post,
if anyone does know the the resistances that are to be expected from the starter motor please post them as it will be handy for others and save them time by being able to test the motor with a multimeter rather than strippng it. :thumbup:

si_c1978

Re: starter motor serviceing

firstly removal is quite straight forward, just undo the wiring from the motor and remove the 2 bolts that hold the motor to the block,
once you have it out undo the 2 10mm head, long bolts then withdraw the endcap (dont worry theres a stud inside that stop your brushes flying out everywhere)
leave the brushes in the endcap for now untill you are ready to clean it all,

next withdraw the motor spindle from the motor being carefull to keep it clean, at this stage clean it of any carbon and copper particles (be very gentle as you dont want to damage this part) inspect that the insulation hasnt started to break down(putting it back together would then be pointless), and take a fine screwdriver or toothbrush and clean GENTLY!!! between the copper segments of the commentator (if thats what they call it, basicly the segmented copper end) and that will do for the centre piece,
clean the outer part of the centre (this can be removed but there is a delicate paper casket underneath you have to be carefull of.
clean thouroughly.
you can then remove the plate under that and inspect the drive gear of the motor apply more grease if neccessary.
at this stage also check for any play in the shafts forwards back left and right.

now for the tricky bit re-assembly all quite straight forward just slides back together except the brushes , dissassemble the ring from the cap give it a good clean.
the brush ring has kindof clock springs in it you can use some fine alan keys and lock them back by pushing the brush in the slidind an alan key into the arm of the spring preventing it from pushing back forwards do this 4 times and the slide the ring over the comentator/armature(copper segmented piece)
replace the cap and bolts at the correct locations,refit bolts hey presto reday to go back on. :thumbup:

si_c1978

Re: starter motor serviceing

holding back the brushes with fine alan keys, these are detached by undoing the torque screws on the end cap.

si_c1978

Re: starter motor serviceing

this is how the middle magnetised section should look, before it was like a coal miners nostril!
also you can see the copper segmented section in the background is quite black, be very gentle with some wet n dry to bring it back, if its scorched (blue)
then you will probably still have a problem

si_c1978

Re: starter motor serviceing

sorry about the pic quality still cant find my usb cable! and im too lazy to remember to get one! :lol:

as you can see the contacts on on the servo were also quite tarnished, i just used a wire brush and some fine emery and then did the same to the cables on the loom(my engine was out for some time so this may not always be the case!)

BURT150

Thats a cheep fix then and hopefully it'l keep going strong.

Ill have to remember that i mine starts playing up.

Nice one :thumbup: