Thread: starter motor rebuild help

Its a fairly simple job to do and by the sounds of the symptoms its the solanoid that may be the problem ..

Knowing the make of the starter would be handy tho they are all much the same the magnetti marelli is the pick of the bunch as its a gear reduction job and they work great and are fully recoable i did mine about 12 months back ...

If you have a good workshop manual at hand it should show you how to pull the starter down for inspection and how to disasemble the the replaceable bits like brushes,bearings and bushes ...

heres a few questions to answer first to determin the main problem with your starter

1 can you hear the solanoid click when you go to start the engin ??

2 After you give it a few taps and it cranks dose it crank at normal speed ??
3 Have you been driving mud/water lately ??

4 Has this just happened or has it been getting progresivly worse ???

The hardest part is refitting the brush cage when putting it back together.

The only problem you may encounter is that seems you have been hitting it it may have cracked the permanent magnets which then damages them and causes them to grind on the armature.

This makes them either unservicable or very expensive to rebuild.

Trick to putting the brushes back over the armature is to :

1. If they have a loop on the out side then use a bit of tie wire to hold them back.

2. If they dont have access to the back of the brushes you can use a couple of hacksaw blades to hold them out while you slide the cage over the armature and then slide the blades out.

Knowing the make of the starter would be handy - Not sure atm

If you have a good workshop manual at hand - yes I do need to get one of those dont I, I still have manuals for all the other cars I have owned (mostly genuine workshop ones), but not the disco.

1 can you hear the solanoid click when you go to start the engin ?? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. If it doesn't work then I get nothing. It has twice started to turn the engine and then stopped. Then I have nothing.

2 After you give it a few taps and it cranks dose it crank at normal speed ?? Yes.

3 Have you been driving mud/water lately ?? Not lately

4 Has this just happened or has it been getting progresivly worse ??? Just started happening on the weekend and has not given any previous problems.

Well with what you have posted it sounds like the solanoid is either stuffed or full of gunk id pull the starter out remove the solanoid check to see if its just full of gunk and clean it and test it or replace it ....

Also while the starter is out a pull down inspect and lube would be advisable and like before mentioned fitting the brush cage/holder is the tricky bit and be carefull as the magnetic force is fairly strong and will jam body parts at will if in the way ....

Best place for parts is an auto lec supplyer or an auto lec as most parts shops will either rip you off or will just want to sell you a new starter ...

Thanks for your advice. What would you recommend I use to clean and lube?