On Sep 20, 11:18*pm, RS at work wrote:
I haven;t been around much lately as my ISP has dropped USENET, and
the Google access is annoying.

This weekend I overhauled a starter in my ex's Mercury. *My Taurus had
about 250k miles on it and still had the original starter, and the
Mercury has the same starter yet it had to be rebuilt with 105k. *When
I pulled the starter it had a sticker showing that the starter was
remanufactured.

Upon disassembly, the brushes were shot, but the bushings and the
armiture looked great, so it was a simple matter of cleaning and
installing the brush holder and the ex had he car back in service.

I find several things curious here. *First this car had the starter
fail at least twice in 105k miles yet it is the same kind of starter
that went 250k miles.

Next, the failure of the brushes in the reman (starter #2?) failed,
yet the commutator was in pristine shape.

Any of you have any speculations why this would happen?

Also why is it so dammed hard to find overhaul kits for starters?

I've never seen an overhaul KIT, just piece parts. Want brushes, get
brushes, need a Bendix, buy a Bendix, need bearings, buy bearings,
ditto solenoid. By the time you get all of that, you could have a
rebuilt starter for $25-30. That may not last as long as factory new,
but probably a few more years.

Did you haul the armature out and clock it for runout between
centers? Had a VW generator that ate brushes but otherwise looked
fine. When I did that, I found the armature was .030" out of round.
A few quick passes on the lathe cured that, didn't eat brushes
anymore. Commutator wasn't pitted or burned, just not concentric.
Looked fine just looking at it.

I've found that discount rebuilts usually just are a repaint and new
brushes, they don't rewind, they don't do much more than shine up the
commutator with sandpaper and add bearings if needed. I usually look
them over very carefully and lube with MY choice of greases.

Stan