current & studs brass / steel ?

Use a bigger diameter stud?

Starter terminal studs used to be brass, more recently seem to be generally plated steel, don't think it's zinc plating though. Maybe even silver plated?

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

The only number out of my head: Brass has 4 times the resistance of copper.

Nick

Any older starters I've worked on have had copper terminals. Modern ones tend to be cadmium plated steel.

I very much doubt that. Cad plating is, AIUI, a real no-no nowadays.

Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

Out of curiosity I've just checked a couple of old starters in my 'stores'. One (Lucas) has copper (coloured) studs with steel nuts (plating long gone), the other (CAV), larger and older, has brass studs & brass nuts.

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

On or around Sat, 28 Oct 2006 18:53:26 +0100, "M Cuthill" enlightened us thusly:

I think a lot of the older ones are copper plated steel. genuine copper terminals are rare and easily fscked-up.

Wot's wrong in doing it the right way ?

Splay the cable out and clamp on with a big Carver clamp, fits all sizes .

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

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we're not welding here John ! (but molten metal IS involved )

AWEM

I wasn't talking about welding, just making a cable connection. If we are talking high voltage stick a plaggy bag over it for safety. That should give Greg a fit or two [ with a bit of luck one will be a tight one ]

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Visit the new Model Engineering adverts page at:-

CAV? That must be an old one! Lucas very much used to favour copper terminals (seen several stripped).

Certainly most modern starters appear to be cadmium coated (at least they've got that yellowish colour), but there is the odd one that uses zinc coated terminals.

The yellow colour is more than likely a Zinc Passivate coating.

However, the yellow colour comes from hexavalent chromium which is now a prohibited substance under RoHS and also motor industry guidelines, so you won't see this in new manufactured parts, which as from last year will now have a silver-bluish colour, as the hexavalent has been replaced with trivalent chromium. This has a lower corrosion resistance.

Any zinc passivate with the yellow colouring will in all probability be NOS.

Peter

It'll be chromated zinc rather than cadmium. For better or worse, cadmium plating has been effectively banned in the UK since the end of July 1993 :-

Unless of course you happen to be a goverment owned electroplating shop repairing helicopter parts at Almondbank,Perth.Admiitedly it is well set up with lots of extraction/filters to contain the fumes and sirens/lights for when they don`t. Mark.

Yes, I'd noticed that the rules didn't seem to apply to the government/military. How do the government/military/police get away with ignoring the best practice that they force on everyone else? Is it arrogance or stupidity?

Mark Rand RTFM