Starter motor swap and refurbish

[John Halford]

Thanks again, everyone. Stephen, time is something I seem to have quite a lot of at the moment, and it hasn't cost any money yet. The donor car will rot eventually as it sits outside. I do wash it occasionally to keep it looking reasonable, but some of the problems are these:

Driver's door difficult to open
Passenger door impossible to open
Central locking doesn't
Fuel gauge doesn't work
Odometer doesn't work
One bonnet hinge mounting badly corroded
Some rust coming through on at least one wheel arch
Rear wiper doesn't work
Alternator adjuster bolt sheared
Paintwork tired
Sluggish
Doesn't like starting in cold or damp
Bonnet release stiff

Now I know lots of these can be put right, but is it really worth it?

HonestJoe, I read somewhere that you shouldn't grease the shaft the pinion slides out on in case grease gets onto the clutch. Having said that, it has to run freely so I will put the minimum amount on (and wipe most of it away).

Laird Scooby, very useful stuff, thanks. I have now dismantled as much as I need (I think), and have withdrawn the rotor from the body. I can see that there is still life in the brushes and the commutator looks clean, if a little scored. Everything seems to turn reasonably freely; the only thing with significant resistance is the one-way mechanism. Perhaps that doesn't matter too much as it won't rotate when transmitting the drive to the flywheel; presumably it's for when the engine fires and suddenly tries to spin the starter much faster in the same direction, which the one-way mechanism will allow.

I'm looking forward to reassembling and (bench) testing.