2008 August 14: Starter (2.00 hours)
Updated:
- Tested the starter and discovered it engaged and cranked ok, but not as good as I would have liked.
- Disassembled the solenoid and found the contacts to be in near perfect shape. I wiped them off with cleaner and reassembled, no trouble there.
- Disassembled the starter. Brushes are in fine shape, but the commutator needed to be cleaned a bit. Also cleaned up some general gunk and muck from the entire inside. I took a look at the field coils and found that the rubber insulating material was in pretty bad shape. It had cracked in many locations and a direct short seemed inevitable. Not good.
- I used the following technique to remove the field coils:
- Placed the starter body in my drill press vice with the drill press vice secured to my drill press table.
- Fit a drag link socket (heavy duty screwdriver blade) in my 1⁄2 inch drive breaker bar.
- Fit the drag link socket to the field coil securing screw.
- Placed considerable downward pressure on the top of the breaker bar (immediately above the drag link socket) with the drill press arm.
- Loosened the screw with the breaker bar.
- I had a spare set of new field coils I planned to swap for this old set. But, the new field coils had a different internal size where the securing bracket fits. So, the new field coils could not be used (I believe the new field coils were for an older Bosch starter off a loop frame).
- Instead, I removed the old rubber insulation and then reinsulated the field coils with 3M #27 glass tape.
- I re-installed the field coils, using medium strength thread locking compound on the screws.
- I used the following technique to remove the field coils:
- I reassembled the starter, greasing the bushings along the way. I used medium strength thread locking compound on the solenoid securing screws.
- With everything back together, the starter works great!