Here we are once again. We cant kill the bus, afraid it wont start again. Anyone know of a place we can get a rebuild on a starter in Richmond, Willliamsburg Va area? Thanks.. again......
The Delco MT 42 like you have are easy to find Napa may have one or can get one overnight the catch with yours is being left handed you may have to rebuild yours.
fwiw not much goes wrong with that starter check your brush holders probably just a broke spring on the brush holders
good luck
thanks, would napa have the spring, if that is what it is?
Hi Ruthi,
We had starter problems for about 2 years.
Had 3 rebuilt starters in and they worked for a while but would then fail in numberous ways.
We were told many times that most rebuilders clean them up and repaint them but don't spend much time to reair them.
We found a guy in NV that had a few WW2 US Army tank starters.
He said the starters are new but the stock for DOD has to be turned over every few years.
This starter is about the same dia but a little longer.
The shaft that the gear is on is about twice as large.
The starter really spins the engine , where the old rebuilt starters would just rotate the DD slower.
If you're interested I'll dig up the info , maybe he still has access to some starters.
Frank
Quote from: ruthi on September 21, 2009, 07:05:40 AM
Here we are once again. We cant kill the bus, afraid it wont start again. Anyone know of a place we can get a rebuild on a starter in Richmond, Willliamsburg Va area? Thanks.. again......
Are you certain the starter is the problem? The #1 thing to check is the heavy wiring going to the starter. Corrosion sneaks up on you and one day the starter will not get enough "juice". I'd look at all of the crimped ends of the wires and if there is the dreaded green stuff, I would certainly remove the wires and do some cleaning. After that if the batteries are good and the wiring appears to be in good shape ... give it a try. If no-go, then tackle the starter removal.
Give us some feedback on how it is going.
thanks Frank, but we are desperate. We have a work schedule to keep on. Need quick fix.............
When we start it, there are sparks that fly from the solenoid, would that mean wiring was a problem?
Yes. If it starts fine some of the time, chances are it is not the starter. If you are seeing sparks, it is a bad connection or bad solenoid.
Ruthi, we have noticed starters failing also because of not enough juice to the starter more on that later. Your in the pinch so check the Batt terminal conections for loose, broken or corroded terminals. How many Batteries do you use for the starter? 3 seem to work better,had a similar problem when we got our eagle(PO only had two installed) and found out that eagle used 3 Batteries from the factory.An under juiced starter will cause pre mature failure , 3 new group 31's and all was well. Eagle Andy just rebuilt his,I believe it was a busted brush spring was the culprit,easy enough to do once the starter is wrestled out of the bus(caution very heavy!)and on the bench.good luck and let us know the out come. Are you on the road, maybe someone is near by that can help.Good luck :)
We are in Fredericks,Va, in a best buy parking lot. Hubby just wrestled out the starter, now, we are trying to find parts, and or help.....
FrankTx, nothing special about the starter the guy has in NV that is a MT 50 Delco I have one in the shop a 24v MT 50 I would give some to come get it.
good luck
Clifford, Better use it to hold down some tarps, gonna be a windy one today LOL ;D.
Hey Guy's anyone near by,can lend a hand.good luck
Thanks Clifford, but unless you live in Va. it wont help us. We have had more trouble the last few months than we have had in the ten or so yrs we have been working on the road. We also have a gen problem too now. When it rains, it floods, pun intended. I guess it is flooding back home in Ga. Anyway, we have a powertech gen. ,10 kw, that keeps trying to die. We replaced all the filters, no luck. Power Tech says it may be the elec fuel pump. So, we are going to have to address that after the more critical fix of the starter. Also, it has a small fuel leak, and they said that is going to be the injectors, and for that, they have to be replaced to the tune of over 1000.00. We have only had it for a little over a year. Oh well, the beat goes on I guess.
Good luck with the starter. Hopefully the R&R is the hardest part and you can fix it quickly. You may find a local rebuilder to check it for you.
The generator is probably a minor problem. The fuel pump I believe is a simple electric pump, probably available locally and not too expensive. It is almost certainly a fuel problem.
The simplest way to troubleshoot it is to temporarily replace the supply and return lines with short hoses into a can of fuel. That will quickly isolate the problem to the generator or the fuel lines. There is no way that Power Tech can completely trouble shoot over the phone, the fuel leak could be almost anywhere, most likely just something loose.
Good luck,
Len
We found a truck place that had a starter, and told us it WAS a left handed one. Hubby spent a lot of time, and a lot of grease, to mount it, and turned it over, and guess what, it WASNOT left handed. So, now he is in the process of taking it off. Called the truck place, and they are putting a selanoid on it and testing it. Grrrrr. We will have to work all night to make up for lost time, and all day tomorrow too. 8) :-[ Generator has been running smooth ever since we pulled into the parking lot. We got a fuel pump for it, but wont bother unless it stops for now. There are 2 copper looking bolts that the fuel is coming from. Tools dont fit it, and they said the fix is to replace the injectors.
Hey, that would be a great feature for the Mag,rebuilding alt's and starters with photos and video LOL.Just thinking again,or not ;D
You wouldnt want to see a video of this, for sure :o. I dont recognize him right now ;D ;D
Ruthi,on the contrary please take Photos,they will be the good laughs ya'll will have when this is all over ;). Maybe a once a month photo in BCM "GREASE MONKEY OF THE MONTH" we can all compete for that title :D ,How about it Mike? ;D
I never replace all of the injectors. Good injectors are hard to find.
I have a belief that there is always a bad injector in every set. I find the bad one and get a good one and never do more than one at a time. I'd talk to another mechanic before I gave up $1000 for a set of injectors. Maybe $50 and a couple hours max. for a single replacement and some shop time.
I have an alcohol problem that I like to spend all of my money on so I never fix anything that ain't broke!
Is the leak under the valve cover? If it's outside the valve cover, I don't see how an injector could cause that. If it is an injector, take that injector to an injector repair shop and get it repaired. They will run it on a stand and fix it, but it may be cheaper to just pickup a rebuilt.
Ask at the truck shop that is replacing your starter solenoid, they may have a 92 in the parts pile you can rob a used injector from. Used is good...
I guess somewhere in the future it might, hmmm be funny, but not now. Sorry, but showers have been taken already, I guess I should have took a pic. Anyhow, starter is repaired, but gen is still barely running. It goes up and down, like it almost dies, and doesnt. Put a new fuel pump on it hopeing that would fix it, NOT. Checked all wiring, cleaned etc., no fix. May have to buy another generator, cant be down for the next couple of months, too much work to do and miles to travel. If only it would have lasted til Nov. :-\
Ruthi,
What coach are you running GM?
John
Ruthi,
I suggest that you pull both the supply and return lines from the generator, and using short lengths of tubing try running it from a bucket of fuel close by. That will eliminate the lines from the fuel tank. I suspect you have a leak in the supply line causing it to suck in air and not a generator problem at all. It could even cause intermittent problems depending on temperature, vibration, etc.
Another trick is to just remove the return line and run a short tube into a can of fuel. Any air bubbles in the return will indicate a leak in the supply.
After you fix that, if you have a long run from the generator to the fuel tank, you might consider relocating the electric fuel pump closer to the tank.
I don't believe that you have a serious problem requiring a generator change out, just a fuel supply problem.
Sounds to me like the gen set is sucking air. Go back over all the fittings on the suction side. Check for O rings, loose filter, loose lines etc. You should be able to find it. Gravity feed it some fuel, if the problem goes away, its sucking air somewhere.