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TR2/3/3A Starter woes....

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K

karls59tr

Obi Wan
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When I had the gearbox removed to do clutch work I noticed that there were scrape marks on the inside of the bellhousing where it bulges out to accomodate the starter. I assumed the starter bottom hold down bolt had become loose so that the starter gear was rubbing against its housing. The teeth on the ring gear were worn down somewhat.
I bolted everything back up but now when I try the starter I just get a clunk when trying to start...on the 5th or 6th try it will catch and the motor will start.
Can a starter fail to the point where the bendix gear dosn't go all the way back to engage the ring gear or more likely the ring gear teeth are too badly worn?
 
If you have an original Bendix drive starter and the motor doesn't run, the problem has to be somewhere else. With the Bendix design, the motor starts first and it's the motor torque against the inertia of the drive that causes the gear to extend to mesh with the flywheel.

If the motor is spinning and the teeth don't engage, I'd still suspect a problem with lack of motor torque (like a bad commutator segment or a poor connection), or the Bendix mechanism binding (due to dirt or wear). From what I've seen, the gears will still work even pretty badly torn up.
 
As old and worn as those starters are, you would probably save yourself a lot of grieve by replacing it with a new high torque one. When my original starter begin dragging, I took it too a local starter shop that worked on British starters and generators/alternators. They completely rebuilt it. It lasted a little over a year before it started doing it again. I replaced it with a high torque starter and haven't had a problem since. Good luck.
 
About four years ago I took two used and working original starters to a local electrical shop. I also gave him new brushes to install. He looked them over and cleaned them up and returned them to me. He explained that there was nothing wrong with these starters and the brushes did not need replacing. Since then both starters have been installed in TR4s and are working just fine . If the starters are working correctly I would not arbitrarily change it out.
Charley
 
My memory isn't what it used to be, but I remember using shims when mounting the starter so the gear would reach the proper point. Wonder if you have those, or should remove/add some?

Tom
 
NutmegCT said:
My memory isn't what it used to be, but I remember using shims when mounting the starter so the gear would reach the proper point. Wonder if you have those, or should remove/add some.

There is one shim there now. How do I determine how many I need? Just as an aside I have a header on the car and a heat shield for the SU's. The only way i could properly access the starter bolts was to remove the rear carb and shield. A real **** hole to get at.:grumpy:
Click to expand...
 
So what Starter do you have, the early (boom shell) or (later Bendix)? It sounds to me like you have a boom shell and the driver rubber is broken/breaking and the starter motor is just spinning free! The scaring at the aluminum bell housing bulge might mean the starter case tip has hit upon installation. Look at some starter pictures and see what starter you have.
 
Mine is the later Bendix type. From the internet I see it referred to as the Lucas 10 tooth starter Bendix type.
 
After having a friend turn the commutator I spent about 2 hrs on my EXTREMELY reluctant Lucas (Land Rover ) starter with a hacksaw blade ground into a hook shape, scouring out the very hard mica insulation stuff. Voila, whole new starter.
 
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