Cleaning the starter

mjennings23 · Post by **mjennings23** » Thu Nov 30, 2017 3:01 pm

Quick question for you all, my starter is slightly noisy in the cold weather, as though it's slightly slow at retracting from the flywheel, so I was planning on pulling it off and giving it a clean and lubricate it.

Any advice on what needs stripping, best suggestion for cleaning and what lubrication is best to use? I can't imagine grease being ideal when it can potentially get covered in dust from the clutch.

mac27040 · Post by **mac27040** » Thu Nov 30, 2017 3:18 pm

for about £65 on ebay i would just get a new one

ben g · Post by **ben g** » Thu Nov 30, 2017 4:31 pm

As Mac said. They're pretty cheap, and they're known to fail. My one failed on me in cold weather (fortunately it was on my driveway). I bought a Lucas one from Eurocarparts for about £65, which has been fine for about 4 years now.

Steve84N · Post by **Steve84N** » Thu Nov 30, 2017 5:23 pm

If you're keen to do a self fix then search YouTube for bosch starter motor repair.

Russ59 · Post by **Russ59** » Thu Nov 30, 2017 5:39 pm

mjennings23 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2017 3:01 pm Quick question for you all, my starter is slightly noisy in the cold weather, as though it's slightly slow at retracting from the flywheel, so I was planning on pulling it off and giving it a clean and lubricate it.

Any advice on what needs stripping, best suggestion for cleaning and what lubrication is best to use? I can't imagine grease being ideal when it can potentially get covered in dust from the clutch.

I refurbish old starter motors for classic and vintage cars.
Don’t put any grease on it. If the pinion is slow at retracting you can try spraying it with WD40 and moving it backwards and forwards till it’s free moving. They do stiffen and clog up over time.

maxman · Post by **maxman** » Thu Nov 30, 2017 5:45 pm

Clean the pinion with petrol to remove the crap.

mjennings23 · Post by **mjennings23** » Thu Nov 30, 2017 7:50 pm

Cheers guys. No plans to replace as is still works perfectly well, just sounds like its catching a bit on particularly cold starts. No issue in warmer weather or if the engine is warm, so I just figured its due to everything tightening up a bit when cold.

Smartbear · Post by **Smartbear** » Thu Nov 30, 2017 7:53 pm

mjennings23 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2017 7:50 pm Cheers guys. No plans to replace as is still works perfectly well, just sounds like its catching a bit on particularly cold starts. No issue in warmer weather or if the engine is warm, so I just figured its due to everything tightening up a bit when cold.

Higher viscosity crap on cold mornings

Rob

mjennings23 · Post by **mjennings23** » Thu Nov 30, 2017 9:42 pm

Consensus seems to be clean it up and a bit of WD40 then? Quite happy to do that this weekend while the alternator is out anyway, cant imagine its more than an hours work?

MT94 · Post by **MT94** » Fri Dec 01, 2017 1:13 pm

I am also having this issue and plan to do this very job myself.

Matt.

mjennings23 · Post by **mjennings23** » Fri Dec 01, 2017 1:35 pm

Seems quite intermittent, car was frozen over this morning but no noise, it was definitely cold enough so must just be the start of it sticking. Still planning to clean it up tomorrow

ph001 · Post by **ph001** » Fri Dec 01, 2017 4:31 pm

Petrol or break cleaner to get all the crap out and then a ptfe based lubricant to help prevent it happening again would be my recommendation. WD40 isn't really a lubricant and doesn't last long at all. You want a 'dry' lubricant like ptfe, e.g:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/3-IN-ONE-400ml ... B006A8JEUS
https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-40-Speciali ... t+Dry+PTFE

mjennings23 · Post by **mjennings23** » Fri Dec 01, 2017 8:24 pm

I'll pick up a tin of that WD40 Ptfe tomorrow then, thanks!

GuidoK · Post by **GuidoK** » Fri Dec 01, 2017 8:53 pm

I think you can better dismantle it and clean it all.
Most important thing is to replace the brushes. They wear and all starters now come of an age that they need to be replaced or you get problems (worn brushes can burn up the commutator inside).
You can get replacement brushes pretty cheap in germany:
https://www.autoersatzteile.de/7990196-era
(era 232032)
The inner planetary gears need to be greased with ptfe grease.

You can wash out the one way bearing in the starter gear with petrol, then dry it with some compressed air and then soak it in oil.
That one way bearing is the reason you hear the noise and it doesnt retract properly.

If you dismantle the starter, there are 2 long torx screws on each side. They tend to corrode and get stuck.
The metal of those screws is fairly soft, so stripping the heads is a risk. You can put some vise grips on the sides and rotate along when you unscrew the first turn to break it loose.

With dismanteling the starter, there is 1 specific clip that is hard to remove.
Its a small c clip underneath a bronze bushing that prevents the startergear coming off the shaft.

These are all the parts inside the starter (cleaned that is):

When you open it up, it looks like this

Full of carbon dust from brush wear

mjennings23 · Post by **mjennings23** » Mon Feb 05, 2018 12:40 pm

Finally got round to this at the weekend, and it was in surprisingly good condition for a 14 year old motor! Brushes still have plenty of life left in them, mainly seemed to just be dirt and dust from the clutch so cleaned all the gears off and lubricated with a dry PTFE spray. All good this morning with no noise.

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