Re: KPack's 1954 Panama
Posted by kevinpackard On 2024/3/7 11:55:40
Vinyl shipped yesterday, so I should have all the upholstery materials I need to get the seats done. I'm booked with the upholstery shop for the end of the month. Then the seats go back in and the interior should be "done". There will still be a few other things to address here and there, but not much.
While I wait for that to happen I'm moving down the list of other projects. First up is the starter. The car was getting much more difficult to start towards the end of last year. More than half the time I would get a single 'click' when turning the key, then nothing. Pulling the inspection band off the starter and physically moving the armature to a different spot normally got me going again. I couldn't tell if I was dealing with brush problems, solenoid problems, or wiring problems (the wiring by the previous owner to the starter was all messed up....I already corrected that). So the starter needed to come off to investigate, and it looked ugly anyways so I plan to freshen it up.
This upper bolt is the devil's work. The solenoid is massive and makes getting to this bolt a real pain. I got it eventually, but involved me laying across the fender and engine with my feet in the air.
Once that bolt and lower were out the starter lifted out easily. It's much lighter than the starter out of my dad's '38 Super.
Armature looks okay from what I can tell. Looks like some oil got in somehow, so I will clean that off. The magnets on the housing also look okay, just dirty.
The commutator is worn and the mica undercuts seem to be filled in with copper shavings. Am I good to clean out the undercuts and leave the rest as is? Or do I need to have it all turned on a lathe?
The brushes are worn down to very little. It looks as if they were barely touching the commutator. Some of them have odd curls on the edges of them. I'll be replacing all these as well as the bushing.
Lastly, there is copper dust everywhere. I don't know if that means anything or not, but it's messy.
While I wait for that to happen I'm moving down the list of other projects. First up is the starter. The car was getting much more difficult to start towards the end of last year. More than half the time I would get a single 'click' when turning the key, then nothing. Pulling the inspection band off the starter and physically moving the armature to a different spot normally got me going again. I couldn't tell if I was dealing with brush problems, solenoid problems, or wiring problems (the wiring by the previous owner to the starter was all messed up....I already corrected that). So the starter needed to come off to investigate, and it looked ugly anyways so I plan to freshen it up.
This upper bolt is the devil's work. The solenoid is massive and makes getting to this bolt a real pain. I got it eventually, but involved me laying across the fender and engine with my feet in the air.
Once that bolt and lower were out the starter lifted out easily. It's much lighter than the starter out of my dad's '38 Super.
Armature looks okay from what I can tell. Looks like some oil got in somehow, so I will clean that off. The magnets on the housing also look okay, just dirty.
The commutator is worn and the mica undercuts seem to be filled in with copper shavings. Am I good to clean out the undercuts and leave the rest as is? Or do I need to have it all turned on a lathe?
The brushes are worn down to very little. It looks as if they were barely touching the commutator. Some of them have odd curls on the edges of them. I'll be replacing all these as well as the bushing.
Lastly, there is copper dust everywhere. I don't know if that means anything or not, but it's messy.
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