Starter motor OK or not?

[neversaydie]

The Radian has thrown a wobbler a couple of times this last week by failing to start. On the face of it, it seems to me like the battery is shagged, since the motor does not turn over with any oomphh.

Battery charged up, fired up nicley, 14.7 volts going in at 5,000rpm, starter relay/alternator check out as ok

Out of interest, stripped out the starter motor. Cleaned up the comm, bit discloured but fine apart from that, brushes all good and metered out ok, bearings/gears fine. Reassembled it, and noted that when assembled its not the easiest to turn the pinion gear shaft due to the field created by the magnets that form part of the case. Ordinarily, I would have expected to be able to turn the pinion easily, but no so, I can just spin it by hand against the field

Having thought about it, the magnets must perform a function as they create a field that prevents the rotor from rotating freely, but I now have it in the back of my mind that the field has somehow become too strong for the battery to turn over the starter more than once, giving the impression that the battery is not holding charge.

Any comments/advice on this greatly appreciated

Thanks

[dt502001]

First amp load test battery,then using a inductive clamp test the amp draw of the starter.

Ps did you clean the segments while you had the starter apart?

[neversaydie]

First amp load test battery,then using a inductive clamp test the amp draw of the starter.

Ps did you clean the segments while you had the starter apart?

Yep, cleaned the segments (commmutator), couldn't fault the starter

Yesterday I rigged up the battery off the Virago. The Radian hadnt been touched since it failed earlier, fired up super

The Radian battery had been charging up, took it off charge and over the next few hours checked the voltage. It steadily crept down to less than 12 volts.

I reckon thats fairly conclusive, but wil check the current draw too

Thanks

[dt502001]

I was asking was did you take the time to clean out the hacksaw width of the comm. in the starter? But I think you found the problem!

[neversaydie]

I was asking was did you take the time to clean out the hacksaw width of the comm. in the starter? But I think you found the problem!

Yep, cleaned the comm with a comm stick (small fibreglass brush), cleaned out the dust from between the segments with a nozzle cleaner file. New battery on today, fired up fine. Off to work tonight on it, back in the morning so should test it out

Thanks