DaveDorson

My wife still moans at me for selling that car.

Starter motor now in, I've been absolutely stacked with work of late, today was the first chance I got to get to the car again.

I am exhausted.

So I got the starter rebuilt, after digging out my soldering kit and getting fucked off last night about being sent the wrong parts.. still we adapt and overcome don't we.

I didn't want to test it on the range rover battery as they're temperamental at the best of times and I don't want to poke the JLR god's, so I decided to chuck an 096 battery that's meant to be for Sarah's new beetle driveway ornament and charge that up so I have something off a car to test it on.

That was late last night.. early this morning my co2 alarms are going off and I'm running around in my boxers getting a bubbling battery into my garden away from anything that night combust, in the rain and frantically trying to turn the alarms off and vent the gas out the house.  Excessive hydrogen gas discharge will set off your co2 alarms folks.. never leave them charging over night or unattended.. lesson learned.

Anyway I went to the battery this morning and it's not melted or anything so I got the jumper cables out the car and a jumper wire and made the motor turn, great success.

The part eventually showed up and as is often the way it didn't fit.. they sent the wrong part.

At this point I've got fucked off with it all so I've chopped then bushes out and soldered them into the old frame with new springs, of course the carbon brushes didn't quite fit the holders either so I ended up filing them back too. 

Parts suppliers are so shit these days.  What the fuck happened to actually doing your job properly?

Was at the workshop earlier earlier and someone who rents a container on the site asked if I do vehicle servicing as his car is due, he lives in one of the villages near by and because he rarely goes into town (so he tells me) he's never taken it to any of the Indies to ask, and he'd pay cash.. I think we know where this is going don't we...

To be polite, I told him would take a look and see if we can get him in but it won't be this week, but to let me know.

Half an hour later and I hear a belt squealing and the sound of a car that's been run about dry of oil coming down the track as I'm packing up.. same gent pops out of a ford KA and as he closes the door the car creaks on its handbrake.  

"It's in gear" he exclaims, "handbrakes been a bit off for a while, I only really use it for my allotment and to go to the tip" 

The car is absolutely hanging, kurbed plastic wheel trims, fuel filler area looking like it's been bogged more times than the school nerd in an 80s coming of age film.

Belts are brown and cracking, stinks of clutch, the remains of the front wheel trims are brown with the rust and brake dust of years of neglect and the discs have a ridge I could use as a BMX ramp.

"How much do you reckon I'm looking at for a service, discs and pads?" he asks... 

I priced up fluids, belts, brakes and half a day because you just know it'll be one of those cars.

"Hmm, can you come down on that?  I will pay cash.."

Afraid not mate, but I can refer you to someone who does servicing all the time if you like, I tend to do repairs and more specialist stuff here, so I might not be competitive.  

"Don't think I'll bother, probably got a year or so left before it needs anything major doing..."

And off it wheezes and rattles back into the heart of Rutland...

Results of a pillar drill press and a few grades of abrasive.

As you can see the worst of the pitting is still there however it's smoother now so I don't see it causing any issues, if not ideal.

Just now, Timewaster said:

Does anyone else find him unwatchable? It's LIKE he is trying TOO hard to sound INTERESTING and over emphasising WORDS so as NOT TO sound monosyllabic.

It's almost like he desperately wants to be Clarkson.

He's not my favourite YouTuber but there's a lot worse out there.  Does review some stuff I find interesting.

43 minutes ago, Rustybullethole said:

I agree. Though many said washing machines are still rolling around as repair patches on various vehicles I have owned. 

@DaveDorson so you have access to a lathe for dressing up the motor? 

No, but I do have a pillar drill and a steady hand 😂

Anyway, global supply chain and morally corrupt economics aside.

Here's the bits you've not seen yet 

13 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Props to you for actually rebuilding it!

I try and rebuild everything where possible as I think we're hugely wasteful in this country and it absolutely pisses me off.

The main reason is because workshop labour rates are SO high it's often cheaper to chuck a new slave labour built part on that's been shipped half way across the world rather than just the parts you need and a bit of time.

For fucks sake.. this forum software is a dick at times.

Waiting for parts show up is tedious.

Gave me a chance to clean up the armature, it needs a bit of work to be perfect, there as signs of it pitting on the brush contact area, which would have lead to the overheat and failure.

I've removed as much contamination as I could with wooden toothpicks and given it a quick once over with plastic bristle brush and a rinse off, which as you'll see has revealed the worst of the pitting.

I'm going to see if I can dress it down a bit, clean the body of the motor off a bit and wait for the brush pack to arrive.   Brushes were well past their best too, very small, two looked like they've broken up, which might explain the pitting😄

I've edited this post four times now and it keeps inserting an erroneous armature picture at the end.. I give up!

Anyway back at it

Replaced the ball joint today, because I might need to be using the car again and the part has been sat in the boot since the MOT.

I neglected to take any photos as it was fairly easy, nothing broke and it took less than an hour to get the arm and offending ball joint swapped over, and I had golf stuff to try and sort.

Tomorrow I plan to sort out the exhaust valve and drier in the compressor.  I might remember to take some pictures, I might not.

Total cost of ownership has increased by £40 or so with the new part fitted.

What I did do, was modify the new part a bit, I should have taken some photos of this really.

So the ball joint is part of the front lower arm, it's got a tab where the height sensor bolts on with a 10mm bolt, a larger through bolt at the chassis side and then the ball joint where the arm meets the hub carrier.

On the ball joint for the new part, it's a single rubber boot with a single retaining clip on the boot at the base, the part I removed, which I suspect was original to the car, has a wire clip at the top of the boot as well to stop dirt ingress.

I also noticed that there's not a whole lot of grease in there.  So I resolved that and removed the clip from the old part and fitted it to the new one. 

With that done, it was just a case of refitting the part, dropping the car down before torquing up the chassis to arm bolt fully and taking it for a drive.  

And I can report, after driving it, I probably need to get the tracking looked at, because although it tracks straight and true, the wheel is a bit off and there's quite some toe out.  I suspect it's been adjusted to the play of the old ball joint by the previous owners friendly local. 

So tomorrow I'll spend some time under it trying to get all the bolts clean and free before I drop it to my friendly man with a hunter for alignment, as I don't fancy trying to do this one with string and chalk.

50 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

So long as nothing is shorted or open you should be fine.  If it was a motor that was running for hours and hours at a time (like the circulator pumps Jag decided it would be smart to fit to the later XJ6), yeah I'd probably be calling that at least mostly dead.  However for the second or two of use a starter gets a couple of times a day it's probably still got a useful amount of life left in it with a good clean up and a fresh set of brushes.

It was working fine until it suddenly wasn't, and when you moved the braided cables about a bit it did spin so I've for some hope.

I took the armature to a friend who repairs alternators and starter motors today, after wasting my time in Corby going to see a "brand new in box" starter advertised for £40, which turned out to be for the wrong car, and clearly used, (it did have a box for the one I need though 🙄) .

Anyway he reckons it'll clean up alright and I'd get away with a new brush pack, he hasn't got any in at the moment but told me you can get good packs on Amazon for less than £20 and they arrive the next day, a new starter motor is £100.

So yeah.. I've bought both.. just incase a rebuild doesn't work..

2 hours ago, 83C said:

I very nearly did something really stupid/fucking amazing (delete as appropriate) today, a VXR8 came up for sale at a very reasonable price needing a bit of paint but otherwise good with 12 months MoT. Almost sent the seller a deposit but couldn’t make the timings work out around work for collection as they were the other side of the country. Common sense says I should be glad I have the money to put to other boring shit like home improvements and next year’s possible house move, but I came close last year to buying an ‘R8 before the Bentley hove into view and today I had the chance to have both. 

Going to be kicking myself for a while I think.

In other news I’m considering what is best for the Range Rover. I think next year it’s going to get a few quid spent on the body, new tailgate, at least a partial respray, wheel refurb, rear suspension overhaul, underside protection etc. I could just sell it and buy a newer L322 or just about stretch to an early L405 but I don’t really see the point in going to a later L322 as I know mine well, it does everything I want and despite being the 3.0 M57 diesel goes plenty well enough for what I need in a big 4x4 - it towed a big tri-axle trailer with Mrs. 83C’s Mini Countryman aboard a few months ago and didn’t even notice it was there. I’m not overly struck on the L405’s looks, it doesn’t appeal visually like the 322 does, so I might as well stick with what I know, spend a few quid and make it properly good for another 5 years.

I'd certainly do the bits to keep it going. You're absolutely right about the maintenance needed on these, you simply can't ignore stuff that needs to be done, you need to keep on top of things before they accumulate.

Mines got a shit load of wax in it now but will need an arch, maybe two and sills doing in the next 12-18 months so I'm making it absolutely mechanically perfect and buying a panel at a time when they come up cheap so I can just go at it when it's the time.

The parts aren't as expensive as people make out, they are more than a focus, sure, but it's more car so stuff has to be made bigger and therefore costs more.

Right..

Power to starter is OK so, wiring is corroded that I can see, so let's get this fucker off and have a look to see if it's repair, refurbish or replace for this starter motor shall we.

Ram air filter means easy strip and access, so starter off in less than 5 mins.

If this was the only damage I'd just repair it but ..

Two of the four brushes have been arcing out and this one is dead.. arse..

So, much like the l322 of great liability, this has been being used with very little in the way of needing to be fed and watered other than fuel.  It's been living at the unit but I want to put something else in so I asked other Dave to bring it home tonight.

He's just messaged me to say it won't start outside his house..turns the key, dash lights up but nothing.

I suspect because of the starter being at the front of the engine the wiring to it is in a mess.  

Power to relay is good, relay is relaying fine, so either the starter is fucked or the solenoid has given up.  

Suppose I'd better go over to his with the spanners after work.

I mega want a gala pie right now 

Top collection.  Like that, sorry you lost your egg in the Gala pie though, I'd have been raging.

2 hours ago, sutty2006 said:

Nope. We had another burger queen to feed the stomach. 

got back to it and noticed a pool. OMGSCRAPIT. No, just water off the aircon. Still needs a regas m9 but at least it works. 

 

made it home safe and sound. 160 miles completed ✔️. Used just under 1/4 of a tank of derv. Happy with that. 
 

box of spares in the back, anyone want a rear wiper? Guy must have had a “thing” for rear blades. 
 

 

 

 

If they're the same as an l322 uses, I do actually need one 

23 minutes ago, loserone said:

Am I missing why it's not something simple like the starter solenoid stuck, or the starter earth dead? 

 

Sorry if you checked all that five pages ago

The starter will be earthed through its metal body onto a metal gearbox connected to a metal engine that'll be earthed with a big braided cable to the body somewhere.

1 hour ago, Dave_Q said:

Have you tried any dangerbodge stuff like trying to jump the battery directly to the starter with a jump lead?

If the ignition lights are doing the right dance and it's something on the starter circuit, as a first step to try and get it running you could bypass the whole thing and run your own circuit with a relay and a big red button labelled "startyabastard"

Yeah, so the key thing to make sure it's all armed and then try and jump the solenoid to see if you can make it go.

I had a beetle with a duff ignition switch once that I ran a fat twin core cable through to a tractor start button that I used to make it go, it was a temporary measure that ended up just staying there 

On 9/9/2023 at 1:18 PM, St.Jude said:

No good. It’s too hot too to Jack it up and take the gear selector off to see if that’s the issue.

If it’s not the gear selector then fuck knows what’s the matter. The ECU isn’t giving codes, the light goes off so the ECU is happy. But it just won’t turn over. I suspect the fuel relay is toast and I’m going to replace that relay with the new one I bought and see if that at least engages the fuel pump.

When you say won't turn over, are you getting any crank at all and no fire, or no crank whatsover?

6 minutes ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

The museum closed at least 5 years ago, if you saw a green VR6 Corrado or blue Golf R estate that’d be my little brother , he lives just along from the shop.

He lives opposite Lian then pretty much, she's got an A5 cabby.