Starter Problem need advice.

T

twenty8tudor

Junior Member
i installed new field coils in my starter. Starter was working ok before. what i am running into now is after putting it back together i have a hard short everywhere. i clip to the ground to the case and it shorted to the starter contact button and everywhere i touch. i thought it was the button was shorted to the case but as soon as i take the end plate off and get the brushes off the armature the short goes away. i dont think i have any parts missing as far as i know. is there supposed to be an insulator between the case and the two brushes where the screw to the case? any help would be great and i am currently working on it now so ill check back soon.. Thanks again
 
Are you trying to measure the starter resistance with a normal meter? The correct resistance is certainly less than 0.1 ohms, and this amount of resistance needs a specialized meter to be measured. If the starter is out of the car, I would just secure it in place and use jumper cables to give it brief pulse of voltage, and see if it spins.

Doug
 
BTW, do they still make those cheapo starter ammeters that you place on top of the starter cable?
They have a mechanism sort of like a compass- a magnetized needle gets deflected by the magnetic field from the cable.

Thanks,
Doug
 
i am using a digital multimeter. if i leave the two brushes out that screw to the case out the short goes away the two brushes that are attached to the field coils are installed and on the armature. if i put one of the brushes back in and not even screw it to the case just leave it out the side it reads an 85ohm short between the case and starter button. and the short goes away when i pull that brush up off the armature. :confused:
 
PLEASE, PLEASE,PLlEASE...........digital multimeters have NO place around a Model A..............and as Doug mentioned even an analog meter won't let you know if the starter has a short, as the resistenece is extremely low. Just do as Doug said and connect jumper cables to see if it spins OK. And, you need heavy jumper cables, not those thin ones, due to the heavy current needed to spin the starter.

Since the starter worked fine before the field change, I can only assume you installed the 12 volt fields to use a 12 volt battery. If I was changing to a 12 volt battery, I'd just add some resistence in the battery cable to starter line, such as a welding rod as mentioned by another poster. That will drop the current and be a lot easier change than replacing field coils.
 
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