Disco Starter Rebuild (long)

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Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By jcw on Saturday, September 15, 2001 - 05:45 am: Edit

The wonders and woes of fixing my '94 Disco's starter. This is a long diatribe, so if you don't have a couple of minutes, no biggy. But I put enough effort into it that I have to unload on somebody.
Started being weaker to the point it almost wouldn't start, but battery was fine. Checking options, I could get rebuilts locally within a day, for about $150 to $200 (plus a core charge of $65 or so). LR wants $700+ for the original Bosch/LR item! To my surprise, Rovers North also quoted a $700 price, and didn't offer any cheaper alternatives. A Mean Green would be almost $400, but a great starter no doubt. Rover City could get the OEM for $300+. I didn't want to trade my quality Bosch in for some cheap rebuild, so I pulled the sucker to see what was going on (could be just a corroded connection or bad solenoid, after all).
Kind of a b**ch. The manual says to disconnect the prop shaft! and then remove a heat shield! Aw, comeon guys, Rovers are supposed to be easy to work on, no? No way was I going to do that.
First step, figure out the bolts. It's a Torx T-50. Be sure to get a socket style torx. My starter must have been removed at some point and put back on by some idiot with an air ratchet. Mine were on so tight I thought I was going to break the ratchet (the manual states only 40+ ft lbs). I found I could get a 3/8 ratchet with about a 10" extension and the t-50 up above the starter, barely clearing the heat shield, to get at the top bolt. And it helps to have someone spot from the top to get it lined up. Bottom bolt is a cinch (altho it too was put on by the Hulk).
There's a ground strap on the top bolt that looks like it would ground a lightning rod just fine. Also the heavy batt cable to the solenoid, and the solenoid trigger wire that clips on. Once those were disconnected, it was just a bit of Chinese puzzling to get the starter out between the drive shafts and rods down there. Not bad at all. Much easier than disconnecting the prop shaft :-) Super messy though, since my Disco does like to dribble a bit down there.
The starter was easily disassembled, and the problem(s) became obvious. The brushes were worn down to nubs. Also, one brush spring and holder was burned...probably because the worn brushes had so little pressure from extended springs that arcing caused overheating. The commutator also had some oily residue on it. However, the commutator didn't show any appreciable wear, and the gears appeared to be in perfect shape. So, just need to change the brushes and save a few hundred bucks.
I had a big cardboard box full of graphite brushes of all shapes and sizes, that I'd got for a buck at an estate sale from some old guy somewhere. Found some that would work, but would have to cut them down and shape them (not too hard with sandpaper on a flat surface, but still a lot of time, then solder to brackets, versus original spot weld).
Called around to see if the brushes were available. Land Rover sources came up with the brush set installed in the holder for about $100! Cheapest. Was about to get the soldering iron out, then decided to call a local auto electric shop...breakthrough!
This guy actually had the brushes in stock, for $6! Plentiful because it's a Bosch starter, just stamped Land Rover. I'd still have to solder them on (he'd give me a free used spring and brush holder to replace the burned ones)...but, he could order the pre-assembled brush carrier for $25. That's my kind of price. Took two days. (In the meantime, drove my '92 Suburban K2500 7.4L .. another great vehicle). And it even had a little plastic ring holding the brushes in the holders against the springs so I could just slip it over the armature. Fellow said the Bosch was a good starter, and the solenoids hardly ever went bad. Must be why they're $700? He showed me a couple of armatures from Ford Explorer starters, where the commutators had cracked in two. Said it was because people will just crank forever sometimes when the truck doesn't start, and they overheat.
Cleaned up the commutator with fine sandpaper. Pretty easy getting it back together...a bit of trial and error with the various washers and lock ring...at first thought it wasn't going to go in far enough, but then realized I had a washer from the mounting bolts on the shaft instead of the thinner shaft washer. After assembly, went to test it with jumper cables. Nice heavy old cables, floppy heavy braid copper. Nothing. But then, couldn't get a spark with just the cables...what can go wrong with jumper cables? Well, something obviously had. Tried a battery charger, and the starter spun, but the gear didn't extend. Got some other jumper cables...then the sucker spun fine, and the gear popped out like it should.
Now to reinstall. After a couple of tries under the truck, I realized it would be almost impossible to get the ground strap on the upper bolt, because you couldn't reach up there. Also, the solenoid trigger wire would be a b**ch to get on after the starter was up, because that was on top too. Putting it on first would stress the wire with the gyrations needed to get the thing in place, and might break it, or at least loosen the connector. So I made extensions for both wires. Used a piece of an old battery cable for the ground strap, and hooked onto the original with one of those heavy copper bolt unions that Home Depot sells in the electrical dept. for heavy duty supply wiring. If the strap had been only 1/2 inch longer, I could have gotten it on the bottom bolt without needing the extension. Hello LR engineers? Same with trigger wire...if longer, it wouldn't have been in danger of getting pulled while twiddling the starter into place.
Oh well. Lots more oil on the arms and face. Thought it was going to be a real trick to get the top bolt in...hard to even see it from top or bottom. But, bolted the bottom one on first, wiggled the starter to seat it, then got the top one in by taping it to the socket with electrical tape. Wife guided from above. Torqued the bolts down.
Started up fine. Of course, I'd had the battery disconnected. I guess if it's off for enough time, the radio needs the security code...so BE SURE you've got the code before doing something like this. I had it written down in the manual. Starter has been fine since. Should be good for another 140k miles!
If you made it to here, thanks for reading. It was a trial over a few days, but a lot of satisfaction in the end...and got to keep my $700 starter!

John
(apologies to those on the Disco mailing list who might see this twice)

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of pageLink to this message   By kyle on Saturday, September 15, 2001 - 04:12 pm: Edit

Thanks John , the starter seems to be a problem for everyone..

Kyle


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