2008 August 14: Starter (2.00 hours)

Updated: 2008 August 14

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• 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:
    1. Placed the starter body in my drill press vice with the drill press vice secured to my drill press table.
    2. Fit a drag link socket (heavy duty screwdriver blade) in my ¹⁄₂ inch drive breaker bar.
    3. Fit the drag link socket to the field coil securing screw.
    4. Placed considerable downward pressure on the top of the breaker bar (immediately above the drag link socket) with the drill press arm.
    5. 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 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!

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