Instagram | / old_car_alley This is a how to test a armature for starters or generators using a Growler. This Silver Beauty, model 440 Growler is a very old school piece of test equipment. Thank you for watching my video.
That was my job for years in the motor shops i work,was repairing dc motors ,generators,etc,etc, i love dc stuff.AC is nothing basically to check, DC has commutator, brushes , field winding's,series winding's armature winding's, interpole winding's etc,etc ,,,,this is on compound motor or generator off course ,,series or shunt motors has less then that .i have 5 or 6 growler's around the house because i love those things.
It's a real sin industries have just gone to the just replace it way of doing things. With my own vehicles, motors, tools, appliances etc etc; I diagnose, disassemble and find the root cause then repair it. I do this not just because I'm a cheap Scotsman, but because I absolutely must know the root cause of the failure for my peace of mind. I spent decades as a GM Red Seal Technician and I almost always kept electronic modules, injection pumps from repair replacements and disassembled and repaired them for fun and profit. To pay a dealership the hourly door rate for me to repair such things was cost inhibitive for customers, but once in a while when there was an older vehicle with a failed part made from unobtanium like old Cadillacs with ancient electronic climate control head unit failures, I was your guy. I'd disassemble and trace the failed component on the circuit board and get it operational again. Nowadays you most certainly won't find techs like that around my area..
It nice to see others repair things too. One thing the I find annoying by some of the younger generation is that they state everything back in our era was throwaway.... I always need to correct their ignorance, and tell them how everything use to last and be rebuildable.... plus most do it yourselfers could do the job. Now days, everything is built so poorly, you might get five years out of it, and parts are 100% obsolete in that time, so replacement is the only option. My folks got new Kenmore laundry machines in 1958. They worked great in to the early 2000's. They thought they wold be smart replacing them, still good working machines, with a new Maytag front loader. What a mistake! They lasted five years. I have yet to have a washer last more than seven years, with out major failure. Now days everything is throw away garbage!
I'm having problems with my motorcycle's starter motor. I've already replaced the brushes and bearings but the problem still persists. The starter cranks the motor really slow and puts a huge drain on the battery. I've tried the starter with 4 batteries (one was an 80 amp hour car battery) and new cables. Could a bad armature be the culprit?
Check the engine timing, if it is to far advanced it will crank like the battery it dead. If it cranks slow with the plug wires off, the timing is not the problem. Does the engine have a compression release? Some have a centrifugal thing on the cam. Also you need to check the no load current draw on the starter, making sure it's within factory specs. It could have bad windings. Are any discolored and smell like burnt wiring? Things like that I really need to look at...
The engine does indeed have an automatic decomp and an anti kick back mechanism but I've heard of people disabling them and not having starting issues. The cranking is speed has been tested with the ECU off (bike is converted to fuel injection), thus no spark or fuel. I've opened the starter a few times and it smells a bit burned, the carbon brushes seem almost like melted on the contact side. It cranked better a few times after cleaning the armature and the carbon brushes but then it slowly seems to die again. The armature winding seemed ok, no discoloration or any other damage. What I forgot to mention that these problems really started after I had the starter clutch fail and spin the starter with the engine. The carbon brushes were totally worn out so I rebuilt the starter and replaced the failed clutch. I don't know the no-load current draw for the starter and I'm not use if I have anything capable of measuring such high DC current.
Sounds like the starter is fried, as it will generate power when spun. Sounds like it got hot. Doesn't take much to ruin the insulation on the windings. I would start hunting for a new starter, or at least field windings and a armature.
I ordered a new starter few days ago. Just wanted to see if I could get any life out of the old one. The starter was able to start the bike yesterday (still cranked very slow). I think I made mistake of testing the starter with the intake manifold off (I just wanted to see if the starter could spin the motor before putting all the parts back together). Having no throttle plate means the cylinder gets filled with a lot more air, thus requiring more cranking force on the compression stroke.
