1952 MGTD #13588
As I said earlier, the starter on my 'new' TD quit while in the driveway
of the seller. I bought the car anyway. Since I have gotten the service
manual and, near as I can tell, the starter I'm using doesn't match what
is in the manual.
The starter has the following identification numbers:
LUCAS
25238A 12V
M35U 1 44 70
When I pulled the starter, I was impressed that the bendix spring and
gear looked to be in very good shape. My first concern was that the
screws that hold the drive-side plate to the starter have been ground
off quite a bit -- I assume for clearance.
When removing the plate from the battery side of the starter, there are
four brushes that run against the copper commutator plate that is
perpendicular to the starter shaft. Again, the four brushes are running
parallel to the starter shaft against the plate and are spring-loaded
from the battery-end mounting plate.
The interior was actually pretty clean and the brushes looked new (were
still quite long). The bushings are also still good showing little wear.
The problem was that they was a lot of carbon build-up on the plate on
the starter.
I took out some metal polish and my Gibbonizer and polished the plate
and brushes and put the whole thing back together. The starter is now
working fine and spinning the motor with authority.
The only real disturbing find was that the teeth on the ring gear are
quite worn -- maybe 1/4 of the drive-side of the teeth are worn away.
Pulling out my Midget manual, it appears that the starter is from the
Spitfire-based 4-cylinder motor. Is this a normal replacement?
Thanks for monitoring the list,
Bob Allen, Kansas City, 52TD#13588
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