Ok I give up... I pulled a starter off a 40 flatty and the brushes popped off the armature. How and the heck do you reinstall these things? I disassembled the access band on the body of the unit but even then I can't figure out how to hold the brushes in place to slide the armature back in. How do you hold the brush clips back?? yikes...no room in there.
I have no experience with those but on most electric motors you can put the brushes into place and insert a thin wire to hold them in place. Put the armature back in as far as you can and then pull the wires holding the brushes in place out once the armature is far enough in to hold the brushes. Does that make sense? It'd be a lot easier in person to just show you.
Yes, Good point. I understand.. I looked for a hole to install a wire to hold but didn't see one. Will look again.
Nope! The bracket holding the brushes is only 3/8 wide and they have no hole. I wonder if Ford made a special tool for this? Dont ever let your starter come apart! What a pain. Never seen a motor this hard to do.
Try installing the armature to the end plate and then slide the barrell over the armature. Tricky but do-able.
The endplate wires are really short on the Flatty starters. Not any room installing the brushes in place with the springs installed and then try getting them to fit over the armature. The springs are very stout and push the brushes out really hard. These are not the typical round springs but the type that are a band bent into a circle. Mean SOBs. If thats what you mean.
Make three small hocks out of 1/16 welding rods and use them to retract the springs. You will need an extra set of hands to pull on the hooks. Another trick was to retract each spring and hook the end on the side of the brushes. Once the armature is behind the face of the brushes thenthe brushes are pushed in and allowing the spring to go back into place and push the brushes aginst the commutator.
Yep tried that. Got three installed and the fourth spring popped right out of its holder. At that point I became frustrated. Looks like another set of hands may work.. if we can get that many in there! Even tried making a hook that would attach to the outer hsg and hold back the clamp. Not much luck on that one. Ha. I bet the guys rebuilding these for a living have a good trick. Back to work...........
Got it! I took some pics to save others heartache down the road. I fashion a hook as hambandy289 suggested to easily get ahold of the springs and pulled them up and placed them under pressure against the top of the brush brkt. You can do this by pushing the spring clear to the top of the holding brkt. The springs will stay in place giving you room to realign and install the brushes. View the springs against the brkts in the picture. Sorry about the clarity.
I know this is an old post, but figured out a way to do it quick. Had 2 hours into this starter twice. Then this. lol. I used these aluminum yard stakes I found at the hardware store. They bend well, cut easy, but hold in place. Took 5 minutes.
Wow! Thanks Fordman! I have one that's been laying in a pile for a year, 'cause I gave up and threw it in the corner.
I know this an old post but I found it while searching for a solution and thought I would share my work around for this. I pull the coil spring back with a hook pick. Then I push the brush up with a 90 degree pick and rest the spring on the side of the brush. The spring pressure holds the brush up inside the housing. (See the pic below) Gently repeat for all brush positions Carefully insert armature Gently lift the coil spring and let the brush fall into place...repeat for all 4 brushes. Finish assembling the starter Drink a beer to a job well done Chappy 20180603_144539 by Chappy444 posted Jun 3, 2018 at 3:30 PM
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