The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

How I refurbished my M35J starter motor.
To look at a video about refurbishing a M35J starter motor enter “morris minor starter motor reconstruction” in Google.
There is also a very good description on refurbishing a Lucas M35J starter motor here: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... 2063,d.d24


I own a 1980 Triumph Dolomite 1300. On 2 occasions in the 3 months since I bought the car, it would not start due to the starter motor sticking on the flywheel. On both occasions I disengaged the starter motor by turning the armature at the end plate. However rather than crawling under my car to do this every time that this happened I wanted to fix the problem permanently.
So while the car was laid up in my garage over the winter months I removed the starter from the car and started to refurbish it.
The teeth on the pinion were badly chipped so I needed to get a new one. I bought an armature spring compressor on eBay as this was the only tool that I did not have to do the job. I did an internet search to research how to do the refurb and found a video which described the whole procedure. It looked fairly straightforward.
I therefore set out to start the refurbishment and soon found out that it was not going to be as easy as the video made out. I generally find that if a problem is going to happen it will happen to me.
I got the Cushion/bendix spring compressed ok and I removed the C clip but the pinion would not come off. I soaked it in WD40 for 2 nights and tried to follow the hand action described on the video. I turned it in out and shake it all about but it would not come off.
I was getting advice from Dave Corner from the Triumph Dolomite Club on doing the refurb. Apparently through time the mechanism inside the pinion will stop working due to wear and rust and the only solution is to hammer it off. I don't have a vice so I laid the starter on its side and got an old screwdriver and stuck it inside the pinion and gave it several hard blows with my hammer. The end of the screwdriver broke and the other end of it got stuck in the pinion and had to be pulled out with a pair of pliers. But great news the pinion was off.
I could now start the “easy` job of stripping the starter motor down. Not so easy. The 2 bolts that have to be taken off the Drive End Plate at the front of the starter motor were on solid. I tried every screw driver that I had to loosen them without success. I tried giving them a knock with a hammer to see if this would shock and loosen them. I sprayed them with penetrating fluid without success, they would not budge. Eventually I had to revert to the vice grips and got a hold of the end of the bolts. Finally and after a lot of effort the bolts eventually came off. As you can imagine the ends of the bolt are in a bit of a state with the trauma caused by the vice grips, the hammering and the failed attempts with my screwdriver but I think that I will be able to use them again if new ones can't be obtained.
I carefully unscrewed the 4 bolts from the end plate at the other end of the starter and started to ease the end piece off. There was no gasket here but the 4 screws were quite rusty. It took a bit of wriggling to get the end of the armature out of the bush on the end piece.
I took the brushes out of the holder and was left with a dismantled starter.
It was cleaning time. The brush end of the armature was not scorched so I gave it a light polish with 2000 grit emery paper. I took the components outside and used my tyre inflator as an airline to get rid of most of the dust, being careful not to inhale the dust as I read that it may contain asbestos.
I sprayed some contact cleaner inside the starter and the brush holder and gave it a gentle wipe. The ends of the armature were cleaned with white spirit as well as the silver Drive End Plate and the Cushion spring.
I cleaned up all of the washers and nuts with a wire wheel attachment on my rotary tool and all parts we're dried and put in a safe place away from children's fingers and ready for re assembly.
I decided not to change the bushes on each end of the starter motor as they seemed to be in good condition and were solidly held in there positions.
I ordered the new brush set, a new pinion and worm on eBay. This cost me almost £28 including delivery.
Changing the brushes was the first job. The ones that I took off the starter were a good bit smaller than the new ones so they obviously needed to be changed. One brush has the connection post (terminal stud) pre applied. It’s just a case of pushing everything into the proper place and routing the cables.
The other brush needs to be connected onto the side of the starter (yoke). On my starter the brush is connected in 2 parts to the post, so the brush I bought had to be cut and soldered on. Note that the length of cable on the brushes is different on both sides. I measured the length of each cable to make sure that the cable would reach the brush box after soldering.
It is recommended that the cable should be cut 1/4 of an inch from the post. I cut the cable and soldered as best I could. I have little experience at soldering so it’s not the neatest job but the connections look fairly secure. I put all of the brushes into the brush box and made sure that there was good movement in the springs. I put the end plate onto the starter and tightened the 4 bolts.
I applied a very light coat of grease to the end plate side of the armature and thrust washer and then carefully fed the armature through the starter motor and through the bush at the end plate. This was a different method that is in the video but I found this way to be a lot easier. I then put on the drive end plate and tightened the 2 bolts.
New washers and nuts were supplied with the brushes so these were put onto the terminal nut at the end plate so that they would not get lost.
I put the worm into the pinion and then put the whole assembly onto the armature.
Dave advised “regarding the drive pinion, the video shows him greasing it quite heavily. This is a no no because excess can pick up dirt and dust from the clutch and cause the pinion to jam”.
I then put on the cushion washer, cushion spring and spring cup washer. I compressed the cushion spring with the armature spring compressor and put the C clip into the groove and released the compressor.
I joined the starter to a car battery. The pinion moved forward to engage and retracted at a good speed. I will put it back in the car in the Spring time and I hope that it gives the car another 34 years service before its next refurbishment.

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Thanks
Laurence