Thread: Difference Between Series 2A and Series III Starter Motors?

Hello All,

I noticed a difference between three starter motors that I have: one is off a 2A, another is off a Series III, the third was given to me and is either a Series 2 or a 2A. Each of the three are different from each other.

The definite 2A has an woven wire earth strap that bridges across two poles at the back of the starter motor. The strap travels under the starter motor and is clamped by the two bolts that hold the body of the starter solenoid. There is single post that has a shorter woven earth strap that goes to the earth side of the starter solenoid.

I have a Series 2A motor that is on a stand in my shed and the engine runs. So I know the starter motor works - it is a known quantity.

I have a Series III starter motor which I took off one of my parts vehicles that was saved from the scrappy's - it was not running when I bought it.

I want to be able to test this starter motor in my engine sitting in the shed to see if the Series III starter motor works.

Because the motor is in a wooden frame the previous owner bolted the starter solenoid onto the front bracket of the motor. The starter solenoid is not fixed to the battery box like normally fitted to an engine in a vehicle.

I noticed that the configuration of the Series III starter motor is different to the Series 2A starter. The Series III has only one post on the back plate of the starter motor. Then there is a short round wire with an eyelet that is placed under the bottom bolt - one of two that holds the starter motor to the engine. The other end of the wire is fixed under a bolt secured to the cross member of the chassis quite close to the end of the clutch slave cylinder.

In my Series III the wire at the single post/terminal at the back of the starter motor goes under the starter motor travels across the motor and the connects to the starter solenoid terminal - fixed to the battery box.

Did they just eliminate the side post in the Series III version and replace it with a two ended short length of multi strand automotive round wire that is fixed between the bottom starter motor mounting bolt and the chassis cross member?

Circuit wise in the Series III is the most important connection the one that goes from the single post at the back of the starter motor to the post of the starter solenoid?

Should I then make up another wire with two eyelets: one end secured by one of the starter motor mounting bolts and fix the other end under a bolt in the main engine body because there is no chassis to connect this end of it to?

Photograph 1 shows the back of the Series 2A starter motor with the flat earth strap that is held between two posts.
Photograph 2 with the purple arrows shows the connecting earth flat strap between the side post of the starter motor and its connect to the post on the starter motor.
Photograph 3 shows the Series III on the left and the possible Series II (A?) on the right.
The last photograph with the red arrow shows the positioning of the starter solenoid and where the earth strap from the back two poles of the the 2A starter motor ends pinched between the engine and the frame of the starter solenoid held by two bolts.

The engine has an electronic ignition system and I do not want to cause any short circuits or have any sparks flying from the wrong places!

I would appreciate your thoughts - thank you.

Kind Regards
Lionel

Hello All,

Well it is 2:00pm and I started work on Batty's starter motor at 10:00 am and I have not stopped for a break until now. Oh I just had a paddock bash and engaged 4WD and traversed my intermittent creek 3 or 4 times.

I did start underneath to see if I could use a combination of small vice grips and an open-ended spanner to undo the terminal at the back of the starter motor - no dice. So I unfastened everything wire wise from the starter solenoid via 4 bolted cable clamps.

I took the starter motor to the shed and held the base in a vice. Used the vice grips and finally got a spanner to fit. Then the terminal post twisted itself off. Lucky I have spare starter motors!

I thought the next bit would be easiest. What could go wrong with putting two starter motor mounting bolts in?

The bottom bolt came out with a type of build-up along the threads. I wire brushed this off and used some Copperslip. No matter how I positioned the starter motor the thread would not start on the bolt. I took the starter motor off and the bolt did engage with the thread and went into the housing to its full depth. So I tried it again and the same thing as Take One happened the thread would not engage. The stuff around the bolt threads when I first took it out must have been the product of a steel bolt going into an alloy housing. The first couple of threads must have welded themselves to the bolt. With the bolt only being short it did not have enough play to be able to get past the missing threads in the housing.

I went scavenging amongst my parts and found that the bolts that hold the gear stick base to the gearbox have the same bolt size and the same thread. Trouble is the bolt is way too long. I checked it to see if it would get past the first manky threads and it wound in happily. I found one of my el-cheapo Chinese incomplete sockets and drilled a hole through it. I ground it down to be a little bit shorter. In the name of international co-operation it sacrificed itself!

I crawled back under Batty threaded the earth strap eyelet through the bolt and turned it. After a little play the thread grabbed and the bolt kept going in until it was nice and tight!. I threw some fuel into Batty and after the starter motor whirled happily away Batty started!!!!

After I remembered where reverse was I proceeded stately around my paddock and then thought i had better go back and clean the windscreen - visibility was not the best!

After some scrubbing with soapy water and windscreen cleaner Batty started first go and we had a paddock bash. I found out that Batty was not in four wheel drive when I tried to crawl out of the creek bank over the mound. I selected four wheel drive and Batty crawled out happily. Just to prove it was not a fluke I did it three more times. I must fix the brakes though

The big bonus is that the spare keys - or my set of keys to my wife, Leeann's car has been missing since April last year. When I lifted the driver's seat up in Batty I saw these set of keys staring up at me! Last year I had problems with starting Batty so I decided to concentrate my efforts working on Rebus, my Series III with a Holden engine.

Batty is rather smoky so it either needs an engine rebuild or I will swap over the engine in the stand that is currently my test motor. Still even with Batty in his current smoky state he is still good enough to drive around the paddock. Once I fix the brakes I can use Batty to tow the trailer and shift stuff around the house yard and the paddock.

Now that I can start Batty whenever I want to again I shall arrange a compression test to work out how major the smoking issue is.

It is good to be able to drive one of my Land Rovers again

Kind Regards
Lionel