16 replies to this topic

[dklawson]

If the used starter required WD40 to free it up, you owe it to yourself to clean it thoroughly inside and out. Run garnet paper over the commutator where the brushes run to remove all the oxide. While it's apart flood the bushings in the end plates with 30W oil. If you have an air compressor, blow out all the carbon and dirt. Rinse and brush the Bendix unit with acetone or lacquer thinner to get all the oil of/out of it. Spray the cleaned and dry Bendix unit with graphite or moly powder and work it into the helix threads. If you do all that, your new/used starter should give you lots of trouble free service.

The cable runs from the back to front in a trough staked to the right-hand floor just off the side of the tunnel. It's not uncommon for the cable to reach out and touch the exhaust pipe. Putting the cable in there isn't too bad a job as long as you've got the right size wire.

The original electric fuel pumps were mounted on the rear subframe just below the left-hand tank. Most electric pumps can pull fuel up about 18-20 inches but it's easier for them if they're below the fuel level and only have to push.

My car is a weekend driver. It takes about three long crankings on Saturday morning to get the engine started. After that, it usually starts easily on the first or second turn of the key. It's not practical for me to take the Mini on my 60 mile (round trip) daily commute. Nor would it be fun to take my car that distance on a regular basis. With my car's gearing I'd be running 3500-4000 RPM for about 40 minutes each way. To me, that's just not fun. The road in your video looks nice though. Someday I hope to make it to Scotland. So far I've only made it to the U.K. for business and that's always been around Manchester ( a long time ago at that. )

[Lt-SilverDragon]

Sorted, dunno what I did as I did a few things before trying it again like replacing the cable between solenoid and battery and replacing both the battery terminals but it works and that all that matters. Looks like it wasn't the starter afterall but atleast I've now got 2 spare and will keep one in the car all the time for the next couple of months. The old inertia starter that I got seems to be a lil bit better then the new starter for some reason but have bolted on the new starter and will see how that goes might just need wearing in.

Tried to clean up the old starter but one of the screws on the end plate rounded so could get it off to have a look at the bushes but sprayed it with lots of penetrating spray, when I can find my mole grips will have another go but for now will just leave it.

The wire was pretty easy to do but took along time putting it in because the cable was too long so I had to take it out again and remove all the slack from the wire at the front and put it all to the back, got so much extra cable at the back I could have wired up a battery on the boot so cut it down.

Well it's a 71 so I don't know why they put in an electric fuel pump, think it was because it had a webber and I'm guessing the mechanical fuel pump just couldn't keep up. Will think about putting the pump somewhere lower but at the moment it works so not going to worry about it too much

My estate, which isn't running anymore, use to be a great starter as soon as I had turned the key it would fire up this one seems to take a little bit more covincing usually taking a few seconds.