Jammed starter?

Hi

I am a new member and new to Alvis ownership.
I jumped in and have a Speed 20 SA Tourer from 1933.

I have a problem with the starter jamming - it has happened a couple of times, but cannot seem to work out how to avoid. It is a really hard jam this time, and has locked up the whole engine, and have had to leave the car at the local pub!

Symptoms
First press of the starter and the engine turned, but did not catch
Second press - clunk
I have tried rocking the car in gear, but is solid. Even with 4 of us pushing we could not move the car with the clutch out.
I have also tried the starting handle, but even with my whole weight on it - the engine will not turn over.

Any ideas or suggestions to avoid/fix would be most welcome
Regards
David

Hello David and welcome to the club.

I'm afraid I can't offer any helpful advice, other than suggesting that your best bet is to go onto the club Facebook page and ask there where there is more traffic.
This forum, unfortunately, is a rather lifeless backwater.

Jon.

This might help.
Go to the Firebird/Firefly forum and on the second page look at the following topic;
Jamming Firefly starter motor.

It would be useful, for future reference, if you could tell us all what the problem was and how you fixed it.


Jon.

Sorry, 3rd page.

Hi Jonathan

Thanks for your replies, and the symptoms described on the Firefly page are exactly the same as I had. I have asked Red Triangle and they do not have the parts or replacement starters at the moment. I also talked to a specialist starter/dynamo place, but again no joy.

I made some measurements and the pinion of the bendix is going too far and the shoulder colliding with the flywheel and that is causing the jam. There is quite a lot of end float and the pinion is quite loose on the shaft as well, so that does not help. The pinion had obviously been rather roughly repaired with a welder and grinder in the past and is quite worn.

I took some advice from a local mechanic who has some experience with these starters and he recommended moving the starter back away from the flywheel a little. That meant I had to remove the location peg, and it is just help by the clamping force of the cover at the moment. I was a little worried about this, but so far so good, no more jamming. I am monitoring the position of the starter through the plate that allows access to the cable connection to see if it moves. I may consider drilling a new hole for the location pin, but that would mean dismantling the starter which I don’t want to do at the moment.

I am also investigating a WOSP starter with modern internals, that would seem to fit under the cover and be completely hidden. Nice option but $$$, and would have to wait for it to be made, so I am glad I have a temporary fix for now.

Regards
David

PS, I think I will ask the FB page next time, as seems like more activity there - thanks