R300 starter motor

[R300]

Hi all,

Looks like my starter motor has packed up, been tapping and knocking for a while, now after a nice run today the car
Won't start, completlely dead, I know it's not the battery,

Does anyone know where I can buy a reasonably priced one? Caterham want £210, also are they easy to fit?

I have a k series,

Cheers all

[Tango7]

Might be of interest to you : http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=210283

[Some Gump]

R300, run a temporary big dia 12v cable to the back of the starter, and touch the "start" terminal with a 2nd bonus wire. This will avoid that really brassed off feeling you get when you've fitted a brand new starter (pig of a job), only to find the real problem is a failing wire under the dash. From experience, thats a very brassy brassed-off ness!

[VHPD]

IF it is the starter it may pay in the long run to go for the Brise option here.

http://www.brise.co.uk/Caterham_starter_motors.htm...

I messed about trying to make a good unit from two bad ones for a while before going this route and havn't looked back. Straight forward to fit but if you want the solenoid as far as possible from the primaries then you may require a longer 12v red lead. Unit seemed a bit lighter too

If you phone Tim Brise direct you can negotiate a better price.

[BertBert]

Some Gump said:

R300, run a temporary big dia 12v cable to the back of the starter, and touch the "start" terminal with a 2nd bonus wire. This will avoid that really brassed off feeling you get when you've fitted a brand new starter (pig of a job), only to find the real problem is a failing wire under the dash. From experience, thats a very brassy brassed-off ness!

When I diagnosed k-series starter click, I just used a piggy back connector onto the solenoid feed. There's not going to be anything wrong with the main fat 12v feed to the starter itself is there?

[elan_fan]

It will eliminate the battery off switch if there is one fitted

[martvr]

The solenoid is just failing to move the main contacts far enough forward to make contact to spin the motor over. That is often the result of the solenoid falling short of providing sufficient effort to overcome the friction in the solenoid mechanism itself. Friction increases because of dirt accumulation combined with sticky / burnt grease from the heat from the exhaust primaries. Solenoid effort decreases in direct proportion to the resistance in the connection (ampere turns if you're interested). That can either be because the cable has been cooked or the connection at the starter motor is not the best.

Problem can be a combination of both of course but I always found it to be the solenoid that was sticking. Starter motor off, strip solenoid, clean out old muck and carbonised grease, light smear of fresh grease and stick it all back on. Worked every time for me but needed doing every couple of years. Other issues such as failing leads increasing resistance do make matters worse but unless they are really bad are symptomatic of the real issue IMHO. While you are taking the starter motor off you'll see if you have a problem with burnt leads or bad connections etc. and can deal with it as you find.

On one occasion I tried assembling it dry to avoid the burnt grease but it only lasted a couple of weeks before I had to do it again. Nothing wrong with my cables or connections. Putting a heat shield around it helped

[BertBert]

elan_fan said:

It will eliminate the battery off switch if there is one fitted

I didn't know that was a mode of starter failure. I'm surprised if that causes dead-starter symptoms. But then again, I've been suprised before

martvr said:

stuff about cleaning the solenoid

Yep, I went down that route. Once I did the relay-trick, I didn't have to clean the solenoid again.

Bert