Xflow Starter motor woes.

[def843t]

My 4th, or is it 5 th starter motor in a year is acting up.!!

The current one works fine for a couple of weeks, then decides to spin but not throw out the bendix. A healthly blow with an iron bar usually works while operating the starter, but yesterday I had to remove the motor. On inspection, the motor seemed faultless with the bendix working as should be. As usual after putting it back on the car, it works fine....But for how long.? What could be the problem. ? A bad batch of reconditioned Lucas motors perhaps.

 

 

[F355GTS]

Is there an excessive amount of oil/grime on the bendix? on they should be dry and free from oil or grease

 

Mark

[Peter T]

Excessive amounts of clutch dust often affects the bendix unit, also the amount of heat generated by the exhaust manifold. I gave up on replacement lucas starter motors and now use a Brise Geared starter motor, it has many benefits which include being able to be rebuilt at half the cost, and also reduces battery life, I know the initial cost is expensive but in the long run it is worth it!

 

C7 PWT X-Flow all Steel

Life begins at 40(00rpm)

[R2D2]

I fitted Cambridge Motorsport starter to a Twin Cam about 2 years ago and it has been excellent. It has about 1.6kW of cranking power anid is quite compact.

 

The only downside is the cost.

[ashaughnessy]

I don't know anything about starter motors but I know how to pick up on the salient point of someone's problem (I think!)

 

If you've had 4 or 5 starter motors in a year, there's a problem! I can't believe the problem is with the current starter that is failing, you surely have to look further. Either the brand you are buying is bad, or it is a bad batch (as you have said) or the model/brand is not suitable for this installation, or there is a problem on your car that is causing all your starters to fail.

 

Sorry if I'm stating the bleedin' obvious :-)

 

People have had similar problems with alternators on crossflows (myself included). I had several cheap alternators fail until I bought the expensive "official" one from Caterham and that has now lasted for many years. Are you buying the "official" starter motor or a cheap pattern replacement?

Anthony

[Westfield]

I have suffered exactly the same problem over the last few weeks. I fitted a

replacement starter that failed after a couple of days, just spinning and not

engaging. Took it back and had a replacement under warranty. This had the same

fault, took that one back too. The third one worked for a week and then failed to

engage again, luckily on a slope.

 

This time I fitted a pinion from an old starter I had. Result has been no more

problems. It was however not easy to change over as the spring is difficult to

compress to remove and replace the circlip that holds it on.

 

When I looked at the machining on the replacement pinion it was very poor in

comparison to the old one I replaced it with. The old one was quite smooth when

you wound the pinion up and down the helix where as the replacement was very rough.

 

Hope this helps