Well viewers, there's nothing quite like living with an old car is there?
I replaced the internals in the starter solenoid the other week. All going fine til the other day when it started to make a sort of rattle just as it fired up. Did it this morning as I was going out. Thought to myself, when I get back from Halfrauds, I'll whip that off and have a look.
Well before anyone asks, no I did not take a picture of it on the back of the recovery truck. Came out of the shop and whirr, click, rattle, tick tick tick. Dead as a Norwegian Blue.
Dropped it on the drive (Flux Rescue worked very well) and took the starter off. All of the copper bits that I replaced looked fine, so I took the motor apart. Lots of crap in there. Two of the four brushes looked fine, but two looked very pitted and dull. I cleaned them all up, cleaned the rotor etc. I stuck 12v across it and it spun like a good un. Put it all back on and - dead again. Click clunk, gasp. Took it to bits again, checked it all through, spun it up etc and everything looked really good. Remounted it and had same problem. Tried knocking it with a hammer and it sort of tries then gets hot and sparky.
Anyone got any clues on this one? Is it worth trying new brushes? 3 tonnes of Auto that won't start is never a good thing. Especially if it stops somewhere really inconvenient. It's definitely not an original unit that's for sure. I could really really do without having to shove my hand in the wallet again this month. It's going to be like a new one by the time I have done. However, I'm still probably one of the lucky ones who bought a good one!!!
Chris
I replaced the internals in the starter solenoid the other week. All going fine til the other day when it started to make a sort of rattle just as it fired up. Did it this morning as I was going out. Thought to myself, when I get back from Halfrauds, I'll whip that off and have a look.
Well before anyone asks, no I did not take a picture of it on the back of the recovery truck. Came out of the shop and whirr, click, rattle, tick tick tick. Dead as a Norwegian Blue.
Dropped it on the drive (Flux Rescue worked very well) and took the starter off. All of the copper bits that I replaced looked fine, so I took the motor apart. Lots of crap in there. Two of the four brushes looked fine, but two looked very pitted and dull. I cleaned them all up, cleaned the rotor etc. I stuck 12v across it and it spun like a good un. Put it all back on and - dead again. Click clunk, gasp. Took it to bits again, checked it all through, spun it up etc and everything looked really good. Remounted it and had same problem. Tried knocking it with a hammer and it sort of tries then gets hot and sparky.
Anyone got any clues on this one? Is it worth trying new brushes? 3 tonnes of Auto that won't start is never a good thing. Especially if it stops somewhere really inconvenient. It's definitely not an original unit that's for sure. I could really really do without having to shove my hand in the wallet again this month. It's going to be like a new one by the time I have done. However, I'm still probably one of the lucky ones who bought a good one!!!
Chris