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MG MGA - Starter Motor Not Engaging
| Quite frequently these cold mornings my new starter motor fails to engage for the first few attempts, just spins with a light nashing of teeth. After it finally catches it works fine. I suspect there may be some installation/protection grease stopping the bendix moving freely when icy cold. Is it just a case of wiping the shaft clean? Is some light oiling ok? Or is it a more insidious problem? Steve PS. It's not lack of battery power. I have oodles of that - 2 x 12v batteries fully charged in parallel when required (normally only use one). However, all that power makes no difference to this issue. It seems a straight forward case of the bendix not moving fully to its engaged position. |
| Steve Gyles |
| Hi Steve, I was always told that the bendix shaft should not be lubricated at all, i.e., left dry. You have already checked the connections are tight of course. Peter. |
| P. Tilbury |
| Most definitely the bendix should be greaseless. Supposed to be left dry. Although, I think graphite lubricant should be a bit better than clean and dry. You might try spraying the bendix insitu with WD-40 or some other solvent to clean off any grease. |
| Chuck Schaefer |
| Steve, it sounds the motor is not giving the required impetus to the Bendix to fling it into gear. You say that your batteries are fully charged, Peter has already mentioned the connections, so we come back to the dreaded starter switch! Is it giving a good solid connection as soon as you pull it, so that the motor can instantly accelerate to enough revs to engage the Bendix? The fact that the starter turns the engine OK when it does engage, rules out just about everything else. |
| Lindsay Sampford |
| Lindsay I hope it's not the switch. It's brand new and only done about 30 or 40 starts. It is not one with the white plastic cover. Nevertheless, I will clean all the connections and tighten them - again. Never had this type of problem before. Flywheel teeth were sound when I had the engine out a year ago. As the other guys suggest, I will check the shaft is clean. It looked okay when I installed the motor a couple of months ago. Steve |
| Steve Gyles |
| Steve, how does the starter shaft feel when you turn it by hand? Could the grease in the bearings be cold and stiff? |
| Lindsay Sampford |
| Lindsay. I will check it out the best I can over the next few days. Unfortunately it's a filter off job to get the motor out. Bit of a pain. Steve |
| Steve Gyles |
| Hi, You say NEW starter motor. What type, specification motor have you fitted? |
| Keith D Herkes |
| Keith Looked like a standard MGA starter design with the band covering the brushes. I got it from Bob West. Steve |
| Steve Gyles |
| Steve, If it came from Bob West then it should be OK. Have you had a word with Bob? The reason I asked what sort of unit it was is because some of these modern "high torque" replacement starters are giving problems. Keith |
| Keith D Herkes |
| Could be the ring gear being worn? I've seen inconsistent starter engagement on beat up teeth. |
| BRIAN WARMUTH |
| Brian Possible but unlikely I think. It was fine this time last year. 3 months ago I was experiencing an intermittent 'dead' starter pull. I identified it as a duff starter switch which I replaced with a second hand but original unit from Barry Gannon. All was well for a month and then the symptoms returned. Had I then done the basic check of bypassing the starter switch I would have realised in quick order that the replacement switch was also on the way out. Instead I suspected the old starter motor and replaced it, all to no good result. I then replaced the starter switch, this time with a new one. All was well for about a month or so until about 2 weeks ago. Following Lindsay's comments above I am getting that niggling feeling that the starter switch may be the culprit again. However, sods law. Since starting this thread the starting system has been okay. Steve |
| Steve Gyles |
| Steve, do I remember you having some issue with the starter cable running out of travel, or was that to do with the switch you had from Barry? It always seems to me that you have to pull the switch like you really mean it, to get the starter to turn in a convincing way, do you find it is that way with your starter switch? |
| Lindsay Sampford |
| Lindsay I even got a new starter inner and outer cable. It is all working totally within limits now. As I said above I think your concerns about the switch are a probably correct. I will be monitoring closely and report back in due course. As it's suddenly decided to behave itself these last 3 days, I am going to delay pulling the starter motor for the time being - don't want another armful of oil from the filter! Steve |
| Steve Gyles |
This thread was discussed between 17/11/2010 and 18/11/2010
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