[Mg-t] MGTF starter issue

[Hermance, Jonathan]

Howard,

It has been awhile, but memory says my version of your difficulties was
caused by the bronze bushings (MOSS 148-600 and 148-500) at each end of
the armature finally wearing enough to allow the outside of the armature
to physically and perhaps magnetically bind up against the inner surface
of the field coil when electrical current was supplied.

Jon TC TD TF SLC UT


-----Original Message-----
From: mg-t-bounces at autox.team.net [mailto:mg-t-bounces at autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of Howard Battan
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 3:35 PM
To: MG
Subject: [Mg-t] MGTF starter issue

Hi everyone. I've got a '54 TF with the 1250 engine. Over the three+
years I
have owned it, the starter has occasionally not engaged when the switch
has
been pulled. Normally, reaching down to the starter and giving a small
turn
to the armature on the square protrusion used to unjam the starter from
the
flywheel has been enough for the starter to work properly. Normally
after
this, the starter will work properly for a long time.

This spring the car started normally for a few days, but in the past few

times I've driven it, it has needed this 'tweaking' more and more
frequently. Today it would not start first try, so I again tweaked the
armature, but it took many tries to get it to connect. After shutting
the
engine down, it was again not starting normally.

Am I correct in assuming that a likely cause of this is worn brushes
and.or
worn commutator? If so, is it an easy repair? Or should I be looking for

something else?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Howard Battan
'54 TF
'57 A
'79 B
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