Can we have enough starter threads?

drikko

drikko

Hero member
Location
Orstralia
So I pulled the starter apart and yep the brushes are well worn.  Not sure why though the bikes only done about 35k miles. They were also worn at about a 15 degree angle, suspect that's because they were down a long way in the holders. The holders seemed to be straight although were easily moved. Will apply Terrys araldite fix to them.

What is more of a concern though is the commutator has about .5mm dip where the brushes have worn it. Is it OK to leave this? Will the new brushes wear in to fit it? Or should I get it skimmed flat?

Apart from that it looks OK, dirty though.

Oh and one of the brush springs pinged it's way across the garage, that will be fun to find, I heard it land on concrete so I know it's there somewhere....  :'( :'( :'(





 
drikko said:
What is more of a concern though is the commutator has about .5mm dip where the brushes have worn it. Is it OK to leave this? Will the new brushes wear in to fit it? Or should I get it skimmed flat?
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Give it a light skim on a lathe to attain contact across the full width of the brush.  The commutator can burn if the brush only contacts at single points.  Takes quite a while for brushes to wear down to fit...

piet
 
The Spring has sprung here as well,,, Here in Blighty it hasn't hit the garage floor ... It's just bounced into wishfull thinking !

  23 degrees in mancunia

   
 
Gidday Drikko, when I got my starter done last year the old guy who did it carried out an armature test and found it had 6 cold soldered joints at the commie- said it looked like a marelli? and that its a common problem for that era. He went through it and re-soldered all the joins at the commie for me. If you can find someone with one of those old winding testers check it while its in bits to be sure to be sure.BTW did you ever catch that possum ?
 
No I can't catch the fucking possum, Red even lent me a trap.. It's bumped all the aerial leads out of my radio now so I have to climb up and fix them.....stupid f'ing thing.


 
drikko said:
No I can't catch the fucking possum, Red even lent me a trap.. It's bumped all the aerial leads out of my radio now so I have to climb up and fix them.....stupid f'ing thing.
Click to expand...

410 shottie, then relocate it to the rubbish bin!
 
My dog (the one in my avatar) used to kill possums. They'd walk along the top of the 5 ft high paling fence down the side of my house. They probably thought they were out of her reach but she'd leap up quick as a flash and grab them. She'd kill birds and bandicoots too. I didn't like it when she killed wildlife but at least she was humane, a quick crunch to the neck and they'd be dead before they knew what had happened to them.

Cheers,
Cam
 
Took all the bits down to my friendly local auto electrician, 'yep brushes are stuffed, wonder how it worked at all.' He's going to lathe the commutator, change the bushes, brushes and rebuild and test. I know I can do the rebuild bit but like the idea of them doing it. BTW if you are doing your own lathing of the commutator bit he said never go past the wear area ie leave the lip on where the windings attach with just a smidgen of clearance for the brushes. Reason is if you take it all off it can weaken the winding attachments. Good advice I think.

Now back on topic to the possum, nah I can't kill it sorry, it's got babies and they're kinda cute. I think the water dragon is a friend of the possums as well as they hang out together a fair bit of the time. Wouldn't like to see the wd lose a friend to violence.... I'd rather have the possum around than a serial murdering dog!!!



 
I took my starter apart the other day and gave it a good clean.

I was suprised to see the brushes were actualy (what looked like) chunks of solid copper.

Is this normal?

CheerS
Ed.
 
Any auto electrician, the one I took my starter to today said no problems and they're cheap. The bosch part number is 2007014027 allegedly (gleaned from another thread).
 
Yeah I figured that but don't have time to get over there this week and need the bike Saturday so figured to go the way I did.
 
fast_eddie said:
I was suprised to see the brushes were actualy (what looked like) chunks of solid copper.
Click to expand...

Just a coating of copper or something similar, normal carbon underneath...

piet
 
Well that was interesting, put the starter back together, stuck it in the vice to try and sparks flew everywhere, pulled it apart and yep one of the +ve brush wires was hitting the case. Made that good, back together, ran like a sewing machine. Stuck it in the bike, turned beautifully a few times then died....sigh, well actually other words were used, I think I may have woken the possum...sorry possum.

Poked around with the multimeter and many places only had 5 volts and the starter relay wouldn't work at that voltage. Then when the ignition was on and the starter button pressed I noticed a red glow from the +ve battery terminal, the brown (ignition and bike supply to the fusebox) wire's crimp was trying to emulate a stop light and doing a mighty fine job at it! SHUTDOWN before there's a fire!

Poked around with the multimeter and decided there were no shorts, re-terminated it and all the other wires while at it, soldered them all (sorry Bob), turned on, started first turn, it never turned that fast with the starter motor before, woohoo, started it about 20 times, just awesome. No heat from any connections on the battery, charging properly, all good now, am a happy chappy  :D :D :D

Maybe if I practised what I preached.......

So I had a close look at the brown wire crimp and there was a layer of corrosion on the wire and the inside of the crimp, probably just because it's been there from new ie 28 years.



 
Dellortoman said:
Another endorsement of soldering crimp-on terminals 
Click to expand...
well ,, all i can say to me lead sniffing mates is ,
have been manufacturing electrical transformers for the last 30 years, and not soldered ANY crimp connections!
 
No doubt, but I also bet you have big expensive crimpers and follow crimping standards that aren't available to the hobbyist!

 
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