Date:         Mon, 25 Aug 1997 22:16:35 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         mark keller <kelphoto@BRIGHT.NET>
Subject:      Re: '87 Syncro Westie Starting problems

Well Tony,

I have experience a similar experience with other starters.  The starter
may have a "flat spot". This is described by a "pair" of stators on the
commmutator end of end of the armature being shorted.  Yeah it made a lot
of sense to me, my first time.  Anyway the result is that much like a
roulette wheel your starter spins to crank the engine, and the the starter
slows to a stop.  If the shorted stators "happen" to be underneath the
brushes, nothing happens when your turn the key. This short is often
repairable by a starter rebuild shop.  These guys say that what occurs is
the the Owner will crank the engine for an extended period, ie hard
starting, the armature gets so hot it "melts" the solder joints, then the
centrifugal force slings the solder off, and viola, you now have a short.

BTW starter crank times are about 30 seconds with a 30 minute cool down
between attempts. I realize that nooobody does this, but from my aviation
days thats the recommended procedure, or was it my marine engines, well I
heard it somewhere.

The point is that starters have rapid heat build up, 300-400 amps can do
that.  So if your engine is hard to start for whatever reason, fix that
willl save your starter.

Mark Keller
91 Carat WLE
Lazarus

>Hi Gang,
>
>Spent some time in the Banff area this past weekend and a problem has appeared
>again on our van.  It sometimes starts with the key and sometimes we need to
>push start it.  It is *very* intermittent.  When it does not start, there is no
>starter noise.  The lights come on at the dash are, so the ignition is working,
>but no starting.  It happened twice on this trip.  The goofy thing is, it may
>not start, so we push start.  we drive for a while and then stop.  It will then
>start with the key.... maybe.  Very intermittent and irritating.  I crawled
>underneath last night and trace all of the ignition wires as per Bentley.  They
>are all tight and rust free.  The last time this happened, 1 month ago, I
>tightened all connections.  I don't think this was the problem.  The van
>wasn't driven much over the last month so I cannot say for sure.
>
>Any place else I should look or is the starter going to give up the ghost
>soon??