Here is a perhaps silly suggestion, but the starter on my 74.5 B and I have been
quite intimate in the past, and at least once this same thing happened to me. I
had read that by rocking the car in gear slightly it might work, so thats what I
did and it worked.
The explanation I had read was that the starter gear and flywheel gear had
become enmeshed a bit to tightly, and stuck, preventing the starter from
turning. Rocking the car (and I would imagine hitting the starter might do the
same, though hand turning seems a bit of a stretch) caused the gears to become
loose again, or loose enough.
The test for this condition is to try starting it with the lights on, if the
lights dim, then the starter is sucking power, and therefore being prevented
from working. If they dont dim, then the starter itself is bad.
In my case the starter was missing one of the long bolts holding the case
together so the entire armature not held straight. Happily replacing the bolts
with some threaded rod (metric no less) has worked very well.
Bart Niswonger
Dirk de Boer <deboer@duke.usask.ca> on 05/18/99 02:59:30 PM
Please respond to Dirk de Boer <deboer@duke.usask.ca>
To: mgs@autox.team.net
cc: (bcc: Bartholomew Niswonger/Almaden/IBM)
Subject: starter trouble on 1966 MGB
Question for you all: On my 1966 MGB once in a while the starter doesn't
do anything. When I turn the key, the solenoid clicks, and that's all
that happens. If I rotate the starter a little bit by hand and try
again, the starter will work, so it seems there is a 'dead spot.'
Anybody have a clue what's going on here? Brushes? Armature?
Dirk de Boer
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