I asked the tech the same question. He said that my commutator looked
pretty good and he guessed that the main problem was the bushings which
were a little sloppy and were allowing the armature to sit off center.
Another symptom I did not mention in my earlier e-mail was that the
starter sometimes would turn over, but made a growling noise and spun
slower than normal.
I'm a "try one thing at a time until I figure out what is wrong" type of
person. They are more of a "shotgun everything" and get it out of here
quick type shop. Of course, if they are going to have minimal warrantee
returns they want to replace all likely parts, even though some of those
parts seem OK now.
I did the slot car thing back in the early 60's too.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Bailey [mailto:bill@oletruck.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 9:53 AM
To: Hanlon, Bill (ISS Houston); oletrucks@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: [oletrucks] Starter problems
>>For $53 they put in new bushings, new solenoid, another set of brushes
>>and turned the commutator. Had it done in an hour and a half. Works
>>great.
What do you think fixed it? Was the commuatator badly out of round? The
bushing allowing too much play in the shaft? Or maybe the springs that
tension the brushes were weak? Years ago I used to race electric model
cars and we would see similar type malfunctions in those little motors
after they had a lot of races on'em. We had little comm lathes that we
would use to cut them down and you could also get replacement bearings
(the *good* race motors had bearings instead of
bushings) and replacement brush springs as well. It was amazing (and
embarassing) how much I spent on those cars. :)
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