Get to know your starter.....

[Spanky "D"]

Alrighty.......As of today, Crusty has been resurected......but first..I had to go through the starter, so I thought I'd share.

Your starter, I dont care what year your rig is......has'nt changed much since 1945, if you have a starter issue.....read this first, my repair cost 32.00 instead of 105.00 to replace with a NAPA unit, honestly I most likely did'nt even need to spend the 32.......but I figured what the heck.......

Lets do it, pull the starter-


There lies Crusty's starter, again it's an 88 XJ, the '01's are basically the same, lets do a bench test.
Place the starter in a vice, clamping the aluminum housing 'only', it needs to be secure.


Grab a battery and some jumper cables, connect the cables to the battery, the other end of the cables....clamp the ground to the vise, the positive your going to touch the lower or inside lug in an attempt to make the starter spin and determan it's problem......


In Crusty's case, the starter needed to be tapped on with a stick for it to spin, even then it was sluggish and lacked power........the item I spent 32.00 on was the siloniod......NAPA wanted 46.00, I bought mine off ebay from a retailer for the 32 smackers, shipped.......I chose USPS over UPS for shipping, it's cheaper and you gain a shipping day, Saturday....and sure enough it showed up today, Saturday!
Your siloniod-


New siloniod-


Siloniod removal is straight forward, remove the positive wire, and loosen/remove the 2 screws which hold it in place........


Once removed, compare your new part to the old, they should look alike, reinstall....


Bench test again.......I was not happy with my second bench test, so I dug deeper.......this is easy stuff, take your time and follow along.
There are '2' bolt heads on the rear of your starter, these hold the armature, brush's assembly together, typically the bolts require a 1/4" socket to remove, the bolts them selves are about 6-7 inches long.......remove.
Break the assembly apart.........carefully.
Here you see the brush assembly which is held in the end cap-


I can already see the problems, froozen brushes and an extremely dirty armature......remove the armature by pulling straight back, you'll feel resistantance, but thats from the magnetic field around it........remove.


2 things to be aware of at this point, there is a single loose ball bearing at the end of the armature, dont loose it, in the end cap which retains the brushes, theres a flex-washer......dont loose it!
Ball-bearing-


Time for clean up.....using electrical connection spray, spray and wipe down the armature, get all the dirt, grime and such off of it, wipe dry.

Starter housing, again with electrical connection cleaner spray......hose the inside of the housing as clean as possible. You'll notice this area is lined with magnets, you wont harm them with the cleaner, wipe clean & dry.

End cap which retains the brushes.......this is the business end, the brushes need to perform correctly......clean this area completely with the electrical connection cleaner......after doing so, inspect the brushes, they need to operate as if they were spring loaded......and they are spring loaded, the brush should freely slide back and forth in its retainer.........



If they dont move freely, use a little WD-40 and start working them until you get movement, spray cleaner...try to move them again, WD-40...try to move them again......and so on.......the brush WILL break if you dont take your time, work them slow.....when finshed....again spray the assembly with electrical cleaner....

Okay, you're now ready to reassemble.......the end cap brush assembly over the armature is first.....remember that little flex washer? place a small ammount of gease to one side of it, place it in the end cap....the grease will hold it in place...........slide the brushes back, one at a time and place the armature in the end cap, you'll be pulling brushes back and inserting th armature at the same time....


Once the end cap is in place, your almost ready to slide it back into the housing......but 1st, remember that single ball bearing? nows the time to put it back where it belongs.....again, using grease.....apply grease to the end of the armature inwhich the bearing sit, apply ball bearing......the grease will hold it in place while reassembling...


From here, simply slide the assembly back into the housing, there is one indicater which provides correct alignment, it's a square notch in the housing where the lead wire gromlet aligns......once lined up, reinsert your bolts, tighten a little better than snug........and rebench test.


My last bench test went fantastic, it performed as if it was new......I then installed it into the XJ (Crusty) which has'nt been turned over since last summer...........BAM! The ol'girl fired right off, the starter, again, performed like a new unit, results speak for themself.

When your starter fails, you might just need to clean it.......

Brought to you by Crusty Corn , when in doubt......whip it out and fix it!