One thing I discovered (the hard way) this week, is that these old starters
sometimes develop marginally good contacts due to oil and dirt intrusion.
In my particular case, I discovered that the somewhat lazy starter suddenly
stopped working. When I disassembled it the first time, the brushes were
fine, but one of the springs failed during my inspection. I assumed the was
the problem. I replaced the spring and put the starter back in. After a
while it quit again. This time I pulled off the band exposing the brushes
while it was in the car. When the brushes all seemed fine, and I verified
with a meter that electricity was flowing to the right places, I applied a
little pressure to the connection at the post connection (hot terminal) and
tried the starter again while viewing the internal working. I noticed a
small arc at the post connection. It turned out that the connection between
the armature connection and the brass post had enough resistance to prevent
it from working. I disassembled the starter again, removed the brass post
(it was loose anyway) and re-crimped it as much as possible (which was not
easy). I tired soldering it but the armature contacts would not accept
solder, which surprised me. After putting it back together (and crossing my
fingers), I found that the starter spins (at least) twice as fast as it did
before.
The 1500 starter has triangular brushed that make contact with the end of
the armature, instead of around the circumference. If the brushes are worn
too short, the end play will allow a marginal contact, causing it to turn
slowly or stop altogether. It only takes one or two (of the four) brushes
to be to short for it to fail. I was able to replace the brushes for about
$6... and requires crimping and soldering. Pretty easy.
YMMV
Gerard
At 2:59 PM -0500 3/31/00, Adrian Barnes wrote:
>The compression ratio with these pistons is supposed to be 9.00:1 and they
>are flat topped (FWIW). The starter turned the old engine over just fine
>(before the engine blew). The only difference is the starter is now
>attached to a different engine with the higher compression pistons. The
>lowsy starter idea did cross my mind until hooking up jumper cables to a
>running car allowed for quicker turning of the starter. Minimal cranking
>amps is hopefully the cause. How different is the 1500 starter from the
>earlier ones?
>
>I may go home and try to jetison some more oil against the wall tonight.
>
>adrian
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Daniel1312@aol.com [mailto:Daniel1312@aol.com]
>Sent: Friday, March 31, 2000 2:51 PM
>To: adrian@workgroup.net; spridgets@autox.team.net
>Subject: Re: almost...
>
>
>In a message dated 31/03/00 05:30:31 GMT Daylight Time, adrian@workgroup.net
>
>writes:
>
><< (he has a fiat).>>
>
>I guess someone has to own them!
>
><< the poor battery can hardly turn the engine over, even with a full charge
>
>(with plugs out it turns over as fast as my Honda). >>
>
>If the battery has a full charge it might the starter struggling or you have
>
>a compression ratio of way over 12:1 (good for part throttle economy btw).
>
>
>Daniel1312
>
G G Gerard Chateauvieux
E A
R R pixelsmith@gerardsgarage.com
A A
R G Pixelsmith on Duty
D E
S http://www.gerardsgarage.com
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