ian@Centric.COM (Ian Macky) writes:
> My understanding of starter motors would indicate one or more shorted
> windings on the armature? That would suck tons of current without producing
> any useful work for it, hence hard starting and major battery suck. Does
> that make sense?
Yes. I'd like to propose a nothing-to-lose suggestion, assuming you haven't
already swapped the starter for a new one, or whatever... Can you disassemble
it to the point where you can clean the armature?
I'm stretching my theory here, but: I was diagnosing a power seat motor (!)
on a big Pontiac Bonneville land yacht one day; this motor buried under the
driver's seat looked to be as big as the starter motor on my Austin America.
Anyway, I had continuity through the motor but it wouldn't turn under load.
I popped the case open and found carbon debris from the rather worn brushes
had packed itself in between the armature contacts, effectively linking them
all together. After blasting the packed powder out with a combination of
brake cleaner spray (I think it was) and compressed air, I reassembled it
and it worked like new. Might this be worth pursuing?
Andrew C. Green
Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com
441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg
Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473
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