When was the last time you changed starter motor brushes?

[drillmastertommy]

I'm fairly new to old vehicles (couple of years now) and being in my mid thirties I was brought up into a disposable society. Working on my old Plymouth truck and Triumph T110 has been a revelation for me.

I love working on them because I can work on everything on them and generally I can find ways to make things work. Recently my starter motor gave up, it appeared to have died and being in the UK, 53 Plymouth starters are not that readily available. Luckily with the help of some internet forums I found a guy who had a couple of spare flat 6 starters and after a lengthy phone call managed to convince him to sell them to me. I had no idea if they would fit my engine.

They promptly arrived and I could see straight away that one would not fit but the other looked good. Some very awkward spannering later and the old one was out and a replacement was in, the positive start arm was in a different position but I got it to work.

As the replacement isn't perfect I decided to stare at my old starter for a while and then I got the battery out. It span straight up.....

As I won't be able to fit the second starter I bought I thought I'd dismantle it and see how these things work, starters are an interesting assembly of..... stuff.

Subsequently I dissassembled the original, cleaned out a whole load of crap and found the brushes to be almost worn to stubs. I didn't even know you could change starter motor brushes! Another internet purchase later some new brushes were on route and today clean up and reassembly started. Tomorrow I hope to finish the assembly and refit at the weekend so fingers crossed.

Maybe nothing new to most but I thought I'd share something I found immensley satisfying.

Edited March 21, 2012 by drillmastertommy

[Joe Flanagan]

Looks good. I love those kinds of jobs when I don't feel like being outside underneath the car. I had to rebuild the starter on my 49 Plymouth. The bushings were worn out so that the armature was making contact with the starter housing.

[Don Coatney]

I replaced my starter brushes about 6-7 years ago.

[Mark D]

Nice work, been thinking about being prepared for this task myself in the future. Good to see it all opened up like that. By the way, I like your attitude. I'm about ten years older than you, but my grandparents instilled an ethic in me that lasts to this day. The old addage "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without", still rings true to my ear today. It's something I truly believe america needs to re-learn to make the current situation better.

[Jerry Roberts]

The starter brushes don't get much wear , not like some other brushes that are wearing whenever the engine is running . Such as the generator brushes .