Birdseye
Well-Known Member
Hi,
The starter in my Case 580 was sluggish and lazy. Before ordering a new starter, I opened mine up to have a look and see if I could see what’s wrong. As far as I could tell the problem was that 2 of the 4 brushes were shorter than the others and getting hung up in their cages and not pressing against the armature.
I pulled the spring back and after getting the brushes out of their cage , I sanded the rough spots so that they again slide freely. I could see however that their length is short and their days are numbered, then the starter will fail.
I also sanded the copper segments on the armature and then put it all back together and reinstalled the starter in the machine. This cleanup and freeing up the stuck brushes made a huge difference , it spun the Diesel engine much faster. After doing this procedure, I wondered if anyone replaces the brushes in their starters or just replace the whole unit , which is what I’ve always done. It seems like replacing brushes would be a lot cheaper but it may be hard to find a source for these and once the brushes are worn other components of the starter may also be soon ready to fail. Anyway , thought I’d ask.
Thanks.
The starter in my Case 580 was sluggish and lazy. Before ordering a new starter, I opened mine up to have a look and see if I could see what’s wrong. As far as I could tell the problem was that 2 of the 4 brushes were shorter than the others and getting hung up in their cages and not pressing against the armature.
I pulled the spring back and after getting the brushes out of their cage , I sanded the rough spots so that they again slide freely. I could see however that their length is short and their days are numbered, then the starter will fail.
I also sanded the copper segments on the armature and then put it all back together and reinstalled the starter in the machine. This cleanup and freeing up the stuck brushes made a huge difference , it spun the Diesel engine much faster. After doing this procedure, I wondered if anyone replaces the brushes in their starters or just replace the whole unit , which is what I’ve always done. It seems like replacing brushes would be a lot cheaper but it may be hard to find a source for these and once the brushes are worn other components of the starter may also be soon ready to fail. Anyway , thought I’d ask.
Thanks.