Super major starter problems

[Kre1979]

Hi

Started my super yesterday a few times to work on plough, went to start at end of day and click, nothing happened. Checked all connectors and battery and still 'click' at the solenoid. Tried using a wire to hot wire starter and it just sparks and no action. Am I right in thinking that its the starter at fault?

Kev

[Dandy Dave]

When you tried it, did you bypass the solenoid? Just because the solenoid clicks does not mean that it is good. The contacts inside may be burned. When you "Hot wired the Starter, did you use a heavy enough wire? Next step, put the tractor in high gear and rock it back and forth by pushing the rear tire. Sometimes a worn bendex will lock in the flywheel on an old starter. Also, you could pull the brush cover on the starter and check to see if the brushes have good contact and if the springs that hold them are good. Other than these steps, the next solution would be to pull it and take it to your local rebuilder to have tested and repaired if needed. Dandy Dave!

[sky blue]

you have checked all the connections are good and tight, it does sound like
it is a bad earth, or a low battery which may need charged or renewed, this happened to me
same syptoms and after all the usual messing around with the silionod and starter it turned out to
be a bad connection at battery , check all the easy stuff first, Regards Sky blue

[Pavel]

The standard starter fitted to Fordson Majors is a 2 stage one. One is mechanical and the other is electrical -- and both have to operate in sequence.
Firstly; when the start lever is pressed down it slides the bendix drive along the starter drive shaft and engages the ring gear. That is the mechanical action. It follows that without doing this the starter motor can spin as much as it likes, but it wont turn the engine over.
Secondly: Just as the bendix drive is engaging the ring gear, a solenoid switch on top of the starter motor is bridged which allows the high amp. current from the battery to drive the starter and turn the engine over.

Check if one of the 2 red wires into the solenoid is alive [with the ignition on]. If it is, bridge it to the other [thinish wire is OK]. All being well the starter should operate -- but will not turn the engine over.
If the above doesn't produce results, then, at the solenoid, bridge the thick wire from the battery with the thick wire to the starter internals [a 25amp wire will do -- you're not driving the engine, but it will flash/spark]. If the starter turns over, then suspect that the solenoid internal bridging connections are corroded or burnt out. If the starter motor does not work then it should be removed so as to check the condition of the brushes and commutator.
If you decide to strip the solenoid assembly you will find that the switch is adjustable. It is very important that the setting is maintained as this determines that the bendix is engaged with the flywheel before the starter motor starts turning -- too soon and it will chip the gear teeth on it and the ring gear.
Lastly, if the starter works, but doesn't turn the engine over, then suspect a broken bendix drive.

Pavel

[Kre1979]

Many thanks to all that commented with advice, I had a fiddle again using a larger piece of wire and it is the solenoid that's at fault. I have ordered a new one, with push button. I've read in other posts about earthing solenoids, I'm no electrics buff, can anyone advise if this should be done and how best to do it?

Kev

[thestig246]

if you want to test the starter motor you could take a jump lead off the battery itself and push it against the starter motor terminal, follow the cable. If its just sparking like hell with nothing happening then its the starter at fault.

As already suggested a bad earth wont help, if you have a mulit-meter handy set it to DC-volts and check the battery, should be somewhere near 10-12volts, and around 14volts when charging.

good luck taking the starter motor appart they are a bugger to get back together haha

hope that will help you out. dan.