Slow Starter Motor

[crofter]

The Starter Motor on my Super Dexta Is slow to turn when cold
I am quite sure the problem lies with the starter because it has
15-40 Oil and and all the wireing connections are clean.
The starter it self has good brushes and the comutater is only a little worn. I striped the motor down last night and cleaned the brushes and the comutater with methelated spirt because they were a bit oily but this made no diferance when I tried it cold tonight, the battery is also new, any advice would be wellcom.
Ronnie.

[Bensdexta]

The Starter Motor on my Super Dexta Is slow to turn when cold
I am quite sure the problem lies with the starter because it has
15-40 Oil and and all the wireing connections are clean.
The starter it self has good brushes and the comutater is only a little worn. I striped the motor down last night and cleaned the brushes and the comutater with methelated spirt because they were a bit oily but this made no diferance when I tried it cold tonight, the battery is also new, any advice would be wellcom.
Ronnie.

Worth a search on the old & new sites, eg http://www.fordsontractorpages.nl/phpbb ... rter+motor
All the best

[pjjms]

I had the same problem with my Dexta and also found the starter internals in good order, but after reading the following on the Leyland/Nuffield news group I changed the earth lead. Fixed the problem. I thought I had good connections as well.

"Hi, The last few weeks my ford van has been getting slower and slower to start every morning, as the battery is only 18 months old I swapped the starter but it made no difference. After doing a drop test on the battery one frosty morning which was ok, and the battery still started my van after the test I decieded to check out the battery leads.

I connected one lead of my multimeter to the battery end of the positive battery lead and the other lead to the starter end of the same lead. I then worked the started with the ignition off and recorded 1.2 volts drop across the lead, I recall reading somewhere that anything above 0.3 volts is unaceptable. Surprisingly the cable didnt feel hot in any one place as I think it had failed over a fair lenth due to engine movement induced metal fatigue over the years.The negative lead recorded a drop of 0.27 volts.

I removed a cable from an older scrap ford van but had to change to battery connector to the pole type. It was doing this I noticed the old cable was 50% thicker than the one it was replacing. With a new end soldered on it was fitted and tested and found to have a voltage drop under cranking of only 0.11 volts. The following day with a frost of -7c my van started as though it was a warm day!

Encouraged by this I set about testing my Nuffields. It was dissapointing, with sometimes quite a thick lead being worse than a thinner one on the other terminal.

I have decieded to buy a roll of battery cable and replace the lot. Dose anybody know the correct size of battery cable for Nuffields? I was going to use 40mm2 cable as the next size up 60mm2 looked far to thick."

Rick, If your reading this I hope you don't mind me passing on your the assistance you have provided.

[The Swanndri Guy]

Good quality welding cable also makes good battery cables too, especially if you need longer leads. I would also suggest, running the earth lead to the starter motor as well.

[Lesfen]

Hi,
Our Super Dexta has always wanted a squeeky clean ground (earth) connection.
More than any other tractor or vehicle we have had!?

Les

[JC]

In pjjms post, he suggests checking the voltage drop in the battery cables. That's a good idea, because a cable can look clean on the outside, but it can be corroded inside the insulation, where you can't see it.

[pjjms]

On the subject of visual condition of cable. I have had a bit to do with NiCad batteries in the past. A very common problem with leads in these batteries is black wire syndrome. The cable looks fine on the outside, but if the insulation is stripped of the negative wire the copper is often covered in black oxide, Being fine strands the wire is usless as theres not much copper remaining. Never happens to the positive wire.

All a bit off track but the point is don't judge the condition of cable by visual apperance. If in doubt do the voltage drop test.

[RossM]

Hi, If you follow the link Ben has put up to my starter problems you'll see the trouble i went to. In the end it was all down to good cables and earths that sorted the problem,oh and a starter rebuild but i'd do this as a last resort. I removed the starter and ground the faces between it and the bellhosing with a flap disc on a grinder to ensure good earthing.

[crofter]

Thanks guys, i have run the earth straight from the bettery to the starter and this made a big difference, what I thought was a good earth obviously was not.
Ronnie.

[Winfried]

I had the same problem with my starter motor.
I took it apart and I found out that two of the three brass bearing bushes had worn out, right down to the aluminium housing. Only the bendix bearing at the forward end was in reasonable condition, the rest was gone. Going to get new ones put in tomorrow. Will keep you posted of the result.
Cheers.
Winfried.