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Starter motor


pig

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This morning I tried to start the engine, but nothing happened. All the right control panel lights came on, but no go.

I checked that 12volts was getting to the starter relay, and the starter itself, all ok.

After a bit of head scratching, I remembered from my MG Midget owning days that a light whack with a hammer would cure this problem.

Sure enough, the mooring pin hammer was put into service, and the starter did its stuff.

So - why does this work? And does it mean my starter motor is imminently doomed?

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No its perfectly normal for anything made by british leyland to require encouragement. You have evidenced this if your engine is a leyland 1.5.

there is further proof of this on period tv by watching agonised hours of fawlty towers. 

 

Course your starters going wrong swap it out.

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Sometimes its the solenoid contacts, and sometimes its worn down or sticky brushes, sometimes its a dead spot on the commutator that the brushes have come to rest on. A blow with an instrament often jars them into action, temporarily.

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4 hours ago, roland elsdon said:

No its perfectly normal for anything made by british leyland to require encouragement. You have evidenced this if your engine is a leyland 1.5.

there is further proof of this on period tv by watching agonised hours of fawlty towers. 

 

Course your starters going wrong swap it out.

 

Not sure it was just BL stuff. Weren't their starters made by Lucas anyway?

 

Anyway I used to have a Piggot with a starter that needed the same treatment. New starter motord lasted a month or two before displaying the same symptoms so I just got used  to carrying a hammer in the car with me.

 

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Thanks for the replies. The motor is a 3 cylinder Mitsubishi, marinised by Sole, the same engine is used by  Vetus. Mine has 4500 hours on the clock.

I looked for prices- the Vetus part is over £500!! I could only find second hand Sole prices, still over 400€

ebay to the rescue- £150 for a new part.

I think I’ll remove the old starter when I get back to base and have a look to see if there’s an obvious fault, maybe have it reconditioned.

Thanks

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3 hours ago, pig said:

Thanks for the replies. The motor is a 3 cylinder Mitsubishi, marinised by Sole, the same engine is used by  Vetus. Mine has 4500 hours on the clock.

I looked for prices- the Vetus part is over £500!! I could only find second hand Sole prices, still over 400€

ebay to the rescue- £150 for a new part.

I think I’ll remove the old starter when I get back to base and have a look to see if there’s an obvious fault, maybe have it reconditioned.

Thanks

I've often wondered, but having a Beta engine, I don't have that problem (fnar, fnar)

It is / could be that the starter battery / solenoid / wiring just doesn't provide enough welly (technical term)  to spin the starter motor fast enough to encourage the cog to engage with the flywheel - it's the torque that's the secret.

Looking at some examples I've seen on here all of the above contribute...

 

However, I've often wondered whether an application of 'dry grease' might be a simple solution??

Time was when you could buy  a can of spray on "Moly". Is there a modern equitant??

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12 hours ago, OldGoat said:

I've often wondered, but having a Beta engine, I don't have that problem (fnar, fnar)

It is / could be that the starter battery / solenoid / wiring just doesn't provide enough welly (technical term)  to spin the starter motor fast enough to encourage the cog to engage with the flywheel - it's the torque that's the secret.

Looking at some examples I've seen on here all of the above contribute...

 

However, I've often wondered whether an application of 'dry grease' might be a simple solution??

Time was when you could buy  a can of spray on "Moly". Is there a modern equitant??

 

Not unless its an old Perkins 4-10x. Modern diesels and even petrol engine use pre-engage starters that move the pinion into mesh by solenoid.

 

However I have known a very old ignition switch with presumably slake/worn/burned/dirty contacts cause starting issues but whacking the motor would do nothing to resolve it. Most likely worn brushes as the solenoid pull in coil earths through the motor itself so poor brush contact = lack of power in the solenoid.

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So not just lucas prince of darkness.

we had a bizarre issue with ours last year full battery but would clonk and not turn.

 

Starter on and off a few times to check brushes etc and each time success.

however it was fine for a day or so and then nothing.

Investigation with mrs S pressing the button (and me hitting the starter) was a failure. Then i saw the nut on the back 

 A spanner on the nut and off she went.

this continued for some time (ahem)...

until ebay found us a new starter ( its an old engine)

on stripping the old starter I discovered the 1968 recon engraving stamp and then found the rear bearing mount cracked in two. A spanner on the retaining nut being enough to stop the shaft wobbling out of line and allowing the starter to operate.

i think the boat had its money out of that recon starter, especially as god knows what bwb did to her in their ownership.

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Update- after the problem got worse, to the point of not being able to rely on the engine turning over, I had a good poke round, and it turns out the starter/solenoid is OK, the problem being a weedy relay between the starter switch and the starter motor. The wiring at the relay was corroded. I remade the connections and since then it’s worked as it should. God knows why belting the starter with a hammer sometimes made it work! Anyway all’s well that ends well.

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Oops spoke too soon! Fault returned, so decided to get a pal to come out with the aforementioned ebay starter motor, and with his help had a go at swapping it over in Llangollen basin. Bit awkward to get to the bolts, but surprisingly easy job. New starter seems to be doing its job so fingers crossed.

PS the cross referencing of Vetus/Sole/Mitsubishi starter motors took only a few minutes internetting, and saved a shedload of cash!

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