Starter Motor

[NonMember]

5 hours ago, daverclasper said:

I think I have heard that "new ones" aren't always great?

As with all things. My only experience was that the GT6's starter expired shortly before the 2016 (I think) RBRR, and the replacement from Canley failed in a different way within a few weeks. They replaced it (brought a new one to the drivers' meeting as I recall) and that one's been absolutely fine. I have a few old ones in a drawer that probably only need a clean up and new brushes, but I haven't got round to doing them.

[Colin Lindsay]

18 hours ago, daverclasper said:

I think I have heard that "new ones" aren't always great?. Maybe more expensive to have it rebuilt by someone reputable, though worth it in the long run?

Not hard to rebuild; the Bendix gears come up for sale all the time - we need the 9 tooth version for Triumphs but I think Minis used 10. Biggest problem is getting the old ones off and fitting the new ones; one of the best purchases I made in the past was an entire £2 on a Bendix compressor, sort of a small spring compressor that enables the spring to be compressed so that the mechanism can be removed. The mechanism can also be rubbed down with wire wool to remove any rust that may cause it to stick, wash clean with petrol and if necessary some graphite powder keeps it moving. Definitely not oil!

[Wagger]

Many of you will know this, so I post this for those who may not.

A four cylinder four stroke engine causes the starter ring gear on the flywheel to wear in two places due to the compression strokes every 180 degrees of rotation. Annoyingly, the engine stops more often in this region. When the ring gear wears badly, the pinion on the starter motor can engage too deeply and jam with the gears wedging and locking. In other extremes, the starter skips teeth or simply just spins without engaging.

Rocking the car in gear usually frees the jamming, but once this fault begins it gets worse until the only cure is replacement of the starter ring gear. Very rarely have I ever managed to dress the teeth in situ to cure it.

On a six cylinder engine, the starter ring wears in three places, but this is far less noticeable because the compression periods overlap. I have yet to have a 'Jam' on a six cylinder car.

[daverclasper]

5 hours ago, Wagger said:

On a six cylinder engine, the starter ring wears in three places, but this is far less noticeable because the compression periods overlap. I have yet to have a 'Jam' on a six cylinder car.

Cheers Wagger, that's interesting

[NevSpit]

Evening all.

Just by way of update now that I have driven the car a few times and hopefully  not tempting fate…

All seems to be well, I have had no recurrence so far! So, in the end the only things that changed were freeing up the bendix and filing down the burrs on it. Plus of course the positive cable on it had been undone and then reattached afterwards - which may have been a contributing factor maybe…

[Nick Jones]

If the sticking returns, a little graphite powder (sold as lock lubricant) in the bendix mechanism works wonders.

My GT6 starter was persistently troublesome after repeated cleaning. A little graphite transformed it.

Nick