Starter motor swap and refurbish

[John Halford]

I bought a "new" 240 (1991 Torslanda) just over a year ago (from an ad in Volvo Driver) and have revelled in its responsiveness ever since. 2.0 petrol injection makes it really GO compared with the horribly sluggish 2.3 carb DL which I had run for 24 years.

However - and here I get to the point - over the last couple of months it has needed two people to start it. My wife to hold the ignition key in the start position and me to whack the starter motor solenoid with a lump of wood.

Yesterday I got round to doing something about it. I still have the old (1987) 240DL, with a reliable starter, so I drove it up wheel ramps and removed the starter. I got the Torslanda up another pair of wheel ramps (thank you, neighbour), removed the dodgy starter and fitted the one from the DL.

Now ... and here is my question ... have I done the right thing? The starter removed from the Torslanda has a slimmer body than the one from the DL. It seemed to bolt in OK, and it started fine, but now I'm worried that if the pinions are different I could damage the flywheel.

I have started to dismantle the faulty starter. The three cross-head screws on the solenoid were a pain, but eventually yielded to hammer blows to an impact driver. The next problem is the two 7mm bolts on the starter motor body which are tending to round off.

Oh, with the starter off and before doing any dismantling, I earthed the body and touched a battery positive wire to the spade terminal on the solenoid. It operated and flung the pinion out (and, to my surprise, it started to spin slowly). Touching the lead to the lower solenoid terminal, the one connected to the starter itself, the pinion spun strongly. But sounded rather graunchy. I repeated the exercise to find that sometimes there was no spark and the motor did not spin. I can't remember whether the solenoid always operated - I think it didn't.

Anyway, the shaft the pinion slides in and out on looked dirty and felt sticky. Trying to push the pinion round with my thumb was quite difficult. I expect, if and when I get the motor apart, I'll find everything caked with dirt and the brushes worn out.

Back to the solenoid: when I pulled the body off the armature it all felt a bit sticky. Obviously I can clean the parts, but should I lubricate the armature? Should it slide in and out freely? I would have thought so.

I would be grateful for your comments. Thanks.