alchemysa
19-04-2014, 07:18 PM
This may be of interest to some members. My son has a 3 litre TE Magna with a weeping welsh plug between the engine and transmission. The leak causes the starter motor to fail. Its a major job to fix the cause so a quick fix was to whack in a new starter (about $85) while considering the future of the car.
With the old starter motor out I decided to take it apart to see the damage. I had expected to find water in the electric motor and assorted fried components. But surprisingly the problem is not the motor, which was in perfect condition, but the solenoid. Its surprising because the solenoid is on top of the starter and I had assumed it would be up out of harms way. But the problem is that water gets splashed up into the solenoid when the starter gear flicks back and force. The piston in the solenoid is some type of metal that rusts very easily, and is not lubricated, so a dry rusty grit quickly builds up around the piston and seizes it tight. So when the key is turned nothing happens although it will sometimes work with a hit.
I cleaned up the solenoid and greased it so its less likely to rust or seize. On 'the bench' this starter and solenoid now works perfectly. If the starter thats currently in the car fails I'll put this one back in and hope to get a reasonable run out of it while we continue to procrastinate about fixing the real cause.
So if your starter is failing don't automatically assume its the electric motor. It could just be a seized solenoid, which is a relatively easily fix.
With the old starter motor out I decided to take it apart to see the damage. I had expected to find water in the electric motor and assorted fried components. But surprisingly the problem is not the motor, which was in perfect condition, but the solenoid. Its surprising because the solenoid is on top of the starter and I had assumed it would be up out of harms way. But the problem is that water gets splashed up into the solenoid when the starter gear flicks back and force. The piston in the solenoid is some type of metal that rusts very easily, and is not lubricated, so a dry rusty grit quickly builds up around the piston and seizes it tight. So when the key is turned nothing happens although it will sometimes work with a hit.
I cleaned up the solenoid and greased it so its less likely to rust or seize. On 'the bench' this starter and solenoid now works perfectly. If the starter thats currently in the car fails I'll put this one back in and hope to get a reasonable run out of it while we continue to procrastinate about fixing the real cause.
So if your starter is failing don't automatically assume its the electric motor. It could just be a seized solenoid, which is a relatively easily fix.