Bang on it with a hammer

Your suppositions are correct.

It also could be a "loose disconnection" between an armature windings and the commutator segment one of the brushes ended up on, and the whack jars things enough to remake the connection and get the motor turning.

In any case, "Things that go away by themselves usually come back by themselves", so it's wise to find and correct the problem before it leaves the vehicle stranded in the boonies.

Jeff

Corrosion between the starter frame and the bell housing sets up a high-resistance path to ground for the starter current. Pop off the starter, clean the flange and the seating place on the bell housing, put the starter back, and watch your torque spec.

Hope This Helps! Rich

Apart fron the replies above, the most common cause is a fault with the conacts in the pull on solenoid. On Some starters you can dismantle these to clean the contacts, but on many there sealed so thecontacts are not accessable. There heavy copper terminals across which the solenoid closes against a spring a copper bar or disc. Thes contacts corrode up due to arcing as the main current for starting goes through them, They arc when they seperate. Ive known them to be welded together as well so the starter continues to run even when thevengine is started. Only cure for that is to disconnect the battery.

Other answers are correct.

DO NOT even try to hammer on the newer small starters used today. They are not the old series wound style and instead use permanent magnets bonded to the starter body. A couple of whacks and they break loose or break into pieces and you replace the entire unit!!!

This is in fact true! You need to use caution around those new PM starters.

And in passing related interest, when electric 'in tank' fuel pumps fail, you can often (but not always) get them temporarily going by a much the same mechanical shock method. Possibly saving time, irritation, cash and a tow tuck ride. It's worth a shot, simple, and no tools are required, but you might get a little dirty.

Just lie down where you can reach under the tank, and hard as you can, slap the bottom of it open handed a few times. (Of course use all appropriate common sense/caution). A variation is to have an assistant crank the engine during the slap process. Tanks surrounded by stone/gravel shielding can be a challenge...

If this trick works, don't put off replacing the pump... even if it seemingly continues to work normally afterwards... your on borrowed pump life time at this point.

Just one for the 'bag of tricks', hope it spares someone some aggravation sometime.

Erik

On the MGA, it was the ends of the gear teeth on the Bendix wedging against the ends of the teeth on the flywheel gear ring, instead of them meshing properly. Just a matter of luck this would happen every so often.

Enjoy, DoN.

My Mother in law did not learn to drive until her husband died when they were both about 52 (1959). The Morris 8 that they owned at that time had the "Renowned " Lucas starter motor and she had a spanner that fitted the end of the starter shaft to disengage it from the flywheel. Lucas fortunatley provided this shaft apparently because they knew their starter would jam. She never realy learnt to drive safely but she knew how to get that car going.

John G.

After seeing this problem and temporary fix on a Honda starter and fuel pump I disassembled them and found bad contacts. The fuel pump contacts were corroded, the starter's eroded until they barely made contact. Cleaning the pump and piling up brazing rod on the starter contacts fixed them. The brass lasted about 50,000 miles per application.

The starter brushes wore out on my Ford. A small local electrical shop sold me a new brush assembly for $20 after I struck out at the dealer and all the auto parts chains.

So far cleaning and greasing have been enough to restore sluggish wiper motors. I fixed a Ford heater blower by drilling oil holes for the bearings.

My neighbor's Sears snow blower with the B&S winter engine runs so hot the muffler glows, he said. I found particles in the gas tank and cleaned the carb for him, possibly blowing something out of the main jet (?). Afterwards the muffler doesn't glow, though it heats to 800F, and without a load (no snow yet) it runs smoother with partial choke and the exhaust smells very lean to me. Does anyone know if this is a common problem, maybe an EPA-required setting?

jsw

I've had them where the solenoid was so badly chewed up inside that there wasn't a good clean spot for the contacts to make up, bendixes get stuck, too, on relatives' vehicles. Haven't seen stuck brushes with any of my vehicles, but have had a couple where they were worn to not much more than the connecting pigtail. I tend to service them before they get to the point where all they do is "click". Usually plenty of warning signs before that point.

Stan

-snippage

The Briggs book I have says that they've changed their carbs over the years to comply with various emissions regs, some no longer have jetting as we knew it. Fixed jets and that's it. Only way to fix the carb is to replace it if solvent doesn't do it, all passages are sealed and no parts available. Don't want users messing with settings, might pollute, ya know.

Stan

"Steve W." fired this volley in news:i7gtda$69g$2 @speranza.aioe.org:

But you can gently whack on the commutator-end bell, and get it to re-seat the brushes if they're stuck.

LLoyd

Kid that worked for me in '75 had a MG"B". One day the starter locked up so he tried to take it off and even with the bolts removed it still wouldn't move (IIRC the pinion moved toward the starter to engage), so I told him I would fix it after I came back from lunch. When I got back, I had him go under to catch the starter, then put a 9/16, 12 pt. socket on the end of the shaft and gave a little shake on the attached

18" breaker bar - damned near nailed him when the starter dropped off, then explained that all he had to do was park on a hill until he got his starter rebuilt. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

[ ... ] [ ... ] [ ... ]

:-)

Hmm ... the MGA still had a hand crank for starting in extreme conditions. Did the MGB as well? (I think not, because when I replaced the 1622 CC MGA 1600 MK II engine with a MGB one, I had to transfer the crankshaft pulley from the MGA's engine to retain the crank capability.)

But that crank helped me a couple of times when it was bitterly cold -- too cold for the battery to crank the engine to a start -- you had a choice of it rotating the engine, or providing enough voltage for an adequate spark -- but not both at the same time. Especially if I forgot to change the engine oil to a lighter winter one in time. :-)

I also had to prop something on the accelerator pedal to keep the engine going until I got back to the driver's seat.

Enjoy, DoN.

Pretty sure there was no crank on the B

'50 Austin, forget the electric start below zero and at twenty below, dump a quarter cup of gas in the carb.

IIRC I had some kind of hand throttle link rigged up so I could get out and push if necessary.

Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Hah! - your confusing theory with reality here Jeff. The proper remedy is to carry a hammer in the car for "field maintenance" - it will be on the "must fix that one day" list, but, hey, what about all the other, more pressing things that need to be done....

Its also known as "light bulb syndrome" - the dead bulb you keep on forgetting about cause its only a problem in the dark - same with cars, if it doesn't stop it actually going, dont worry about it. And if it can be "fixed" by wacking it with a hammer, well...I rest my case.....

Andrew VK3BFA.

I found that I could start a Beetle with a dead battery by jacking up and turning a rear wheel with the tranny in 4th, the large tires and

2:1 reduction in the differential gave enough advantage and the tires were safer than a long breaker bar if the engine kicked back. The car shook badly until I could jump in and slap it into neutral so the other wheels needed to be blocked with large rocks.

jsw

Hey, I can't work on the roof in the rain! ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Speaking of oil, I once drove a Plymouth Gran Fury (big gunboat of a car) from Southern Cal. to the Minneapolis area in the dead of winter. I had been running 20W50 oil. I got to my destination in Mpls, parked in the lot, and went home.

The next morning, of course, the car wouldn't even crank. In below- freezing weather, that 20W50 was like tar. I got a bunch of 5W20, and the car never gave me another problem, until it threw the timing chain. )-;

Cheers! Rich

Please inspect the gasket between the carb and the engine body. If the gasket looks OK, please give it a light coating of Permatex IIB non hardening gasket sealer.