Starter Issues

If the starter is spinning, it's not a relay - its the Bendix gear sticking. Remove starter, remove Bendix gear, dismantle, degrease carefully, coat with graphite or other dry lube (do NOT oil it) and re-assemble. It'll be as good as new :)

They get sticky after oiling, be it accidental or deliberate. The oil picks up dust, it congeals & then the Bendix cannot throw.

Duracell Bunny uttered summat worrerz funny about:

I replaced the starter on my 101 with a modern one which looked a 1/3rd of the size.

It works... the old one didn't despite much prodding and such like from myself.

Lee D

It should be a "pre-engaged" type starter, hence no Bendix. The solenoid, via an arm/yoke thingie, engages the drive unit. And yes, it could be the solenoid "sticking" (dirty internal contacts) that is the problem. If is a Bosch unit then the solenoid is STC1242 (assuming the US spec vehicles use the same starter). Lucas, and most Bosch, solenoids can be dismantled and repaired with a service kit from your "local" Lucas agent - but it can be a pain getting them back together, especially finding that little spring that shot past your ear when taking to bits.....

Richard

On or around Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:55:31 +1000, Duracell Bunny enlightened us thusly:

except that the modern ones don't have a bendix gear, they're pre-engaged. Not to say that this isn't good advice for series motors which have got bendix gears...

I'd look at the fault being in the clutch or in the gear-engaging mechanism. In theory, no current is supplied to the motor until the gear has been engaged, by the same solenoid that switches the current to the motor, allied to a lever of some kind.

If it intermittently doesn't run, I'd suspect the clutch unit in the motor/gear assembly.

recon starter is the easy answer, unless you have a good auto-electric repair place to hand.

Rarely, the ring gear can be loose on the flywheel, although that tends to make a different noise.

Having never worked on anything that modern, I'll bow to superior knowledge. I was led to believe that pre-engaged starters did not spin unless the gear was engaged, so I'd assumed it was a Bendix device.

I'll shut up now :)

Ah yes, but that's what the buggers do when they go wrong!!!!! One guy in my street has a car with a crook pre-engaged starter that has been wrong for months. Some people will tolerate anything!

Cheers,

Graeme Evans

03 9318 0690(H), 0419 880371(B), 03 9318 0893(Fax) E-mail: snipped-for-privacy@comcen.com.au

On or around Fri, 15 Sep 2006 10:53:13 +1000, Duracell Bunny enlightened us thusly:

they're not supposed to - if it's working properly then the pinion is engaged by the solenoid, and the motor current is switched by the same solenoid at the end of its stroke.

There's a freewheel of some kind in the pinion drive though which is there to stop the engine over-speeding the starter motor when it starts, same as the bendix ones kick out of mesh. Motor spinning but not turning the engine is most likely this unit at fault. Other faults don't normally cause those symptoms.

The pre-engaged one has one big advantage over the bendix type - it'll stay in mesh all the time the power is supplied, and so on an engine that kicks on one cylinder but doesn't catch and run, it'll keep cranking - this is often true of older diesels, which will start firing or semi-firing on one pot before the others. A bendix one will kick out of mesh and stop turning the engine, which can be a pain at times, and wouldn't start the abovementioned diesel.

no need... likesay, the info about the bendix gear is worth repeating.

In article , Duracell Bunny writes

Mine used to on a regular basis, only way to stop the thing was to disconnect the battery. Problem was that no matter how long I left it, as soon as the battery lead made contact with the battery off it went again. Nothing else to do but swap it (done in under an hour in the dark) with the spare and sort it out, then we'd be OK for another year or so.

Adrian

p.s. anyone want to buy one ?, came off either a 2 or 2.25 diesel.

Yep - one way clutch in the pinion - and the symptoms are that it's shagged so it's probably new pinion time (and make sure you're sitting down when you hear the price).

On or around Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:19:28 +0100, Adrian Simpson enlightened us thusly:

motor running when it shouldn't is normally a sticking solenoid/mechanism.

In article , Austin Shackles writes

Enlightened ? (rarely accused of doing that !)

As a one off I would happily go along with that, but when it happened several times, and one two different motors, I did start to wonder.

Adrian

My moneys with EMB, sticking solenoid wouldn't reach the switching point for the motor.

Martin

On or around Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:13:14 +0100, "Oily" enlightened us thusly:

note that we're not talking about the original iffy starter here but a different one with different symptoms...

solenoid/mechanism.

Ah, I wasn't paying attention, one with welded contacts on solenoid end cap, I stand corrected. :-)

Martin