10 seconds on, but how long off? It should be 15-30 minutes to allow
a good cooling down. Now of course, none of us actually do that.
We crank and crank and crank, hoping that the motor will act enough
like a heat sink to allow us to get away with it. Often times you can,
sometimes you cannot. Most starter motors will allow you to
get away with upwards of a solid minute of cranking before
self destructing in a terminal manner. But this does not mean
that all starter motors will do this.
I will say that my Spitfire has tolerated upwards of 30 seconds
solid cranking time, with burst after that giving nearly a minute
of cranking time. Nothing has melted down in the process,
but I do understand I'm breaking down insulation in the process
and cutting my motors life short doing this.
To actually melt the plastic housing the hot post sits in, I'd
speculate that you were cranking...shall we say enthusiastically
and excessively? :-)
|