How to test the Starter motor??

mlucia10 · Post by **mlucia10** » Fri May 23, 2008 12:31 am

I am trying to remove the starter motor to test it.

before removing it, i applied my 12 volt, 1 amp, drip charger to the red and green terminals to the starter motor.

ALL i got was a ( MMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm) sound. Does this mean my starter motor is fried?

mlucia10 · Post by **mlucia10** » Fri May 23, 2008 2:55 am

I removed the starter motor and it spins and seems to operate normally

But when it is connected to the gear in the engine it does not rotate.

Does those gears normally seize up?

Is it ok to just spray a decent amount of WD40 in the starter motor entry of the engine and then follow with some gear lube?

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Fri May 23, 2008 10:38 am

Your engine might be seized, pull off the belt cover and try turning it over by hand with the spark plug removed. You CAN NOT just spray wd 40 in there, there is a V belt and a dry clutch in there.

mlucia10 · Post by **mlucia10** » Fri May 23, 2008 12:55 pm

The cylinder has good compression. I can rotate the wheel (white grooves for fanning the engine / fly wheel ? ) and i feel good compression and if rotated fast enough get a spark. I'm grounding out the plug of the block also.

Could the dry gears your are talking about be seized up separately ? Is this common? And how would i go about fixing these gears / seizing them ?

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Fri May 23, 2008 2:32 pm

Pull the cover off and have a look, the starter gears should get a VERY VERY light coat of grease (so it doesnt get on the belt) at the most.

mlucia10 · Post by **mlucia10** » Sat May 24, 2008 1:01 am

I took off the belt cover and cleaned up the bendix. It had some rust and wasn't spinning up and engaging the gear. I sprayed some WD40 in it and played around with it manually with my hands. i put it back together and reattached the starter motor. I applied a 2 amp / 12 volt current to the starter motor and got the piston pumping away.

So it seems like the starter relay was the problem, unless there is simply a bad fuse / wire also.

Also i didn't notice a spark from my pulled plug during this little victory. How would i go about checking out my coil?

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Sat May 24, 2008 10:37 am

Did you have the plug grounded to the frame? You check the coil by taking it off (with the spark plug still on it) ground the plug and ground terminal of the coil, and very quickly apply and remove 12vdc to the coil, you should get a spark. You might want to try a new plug first.