[Farmall] RE: [AT] Starter motor: troubleshooting?

Mike Sloane mikesloane at verizon.net
Mon Sep 18 14:46:20 PDT 2006



Dean Vinson wrote:
> Thanks, everyone.  It's running again although I don't know precisely what
> made the difference.  I tapped on the starter, rocked the tractor back and
> forth, took a wire brush to all the connections, still didn't move.  Took
> the starter off, rotated it by hand, hooked it up to a battery for a second
> and watched it spin, put it back on, nothing.  Came back a few minutes later
> and tried again, and it started right up.
Well, that's fine, Dean, but if it happened once, it is likely to happen 
again, and at the worst possible time and place.
> 
> I'm a little suspicious of the main battery cable, since the insulation had
> been frayed and rotted completely off in a few spots.  Steel stranded wire
Steel? I hope not - that would be a very poor starter cable, with very 
high resistance and tendency to rust. I have never seen steel cable used 
for a starter, and it certainly is very unlikely to have come from the 
factory that way (unless there was some period during WWII when it was 
easier to get steel than copper?).

> looked okay and I wrapped it all with electrical tape, but it probably
> wouldn't hurt me to replace it--I'm not sure all those strands are really
> continuous.  (Where do you buy heavy cable like that?  Home Depot?)
For that gauge of cable, your best bet is to buy welding cable from a 
local welding supply place - the heavier the better. They may even have 
the ability to put a terminal on the switch end.
> 
> Strange moment of the day:  When I pulled the starter motor off, it had a
> bunch of gunk stuck up around the inside edge of the housing.  Looked like
> animal fur.  There was even a little feather.  How the heck did that stuff
> get in there??
One word: mice. Look for any holes large enough to stick your pinky 
finger in: a mouse can get through that. I ended up pounding various 
size corks into all the unused holes in the clutch housing on my Super M 
and then painting them over. So far, that seems to have kept them out.

Mike
> 
> Dean Vinson
> Dayton, Ohio
> www.vinsonfarm.net
> 
> 
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> 
> 

-- 
Mike Sloane
Allamuchy NJ
<mikesloane at verizon.net>
Website: <www.geocities.com/mikesloane>
Images: <www.fotki.com/mikesloane>

War is so unjust and ugly that all who wage it must try to
stifle the voice of conscience within themselves.
-Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)


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