Bendix won't engage...

[jtexas]

Rebuilt my starter today with new brushes, bench test looked fine, far as I can tell it's spinning plenty fast. Put it on the motor, bendix don't engage. I know it's not stuck...must not be spinning fast enough. Check voltage, looks like plenty...must have done something wrong. Took it apart...looks fine, reassemble, still don't work.

Wait a minute, what direction is it spinning...clockwise...go outside, look at the flywheel...it's supposed to spin...clockwise. Now, I'm no engineer, but even I could sense that something's...not...quite...right...with this picture...okay...took me nearly all day to figure it out...but...I put the brushes in wrong way round - that is, I put the field brush in the positive brush holder and vice versa...dang thing was spinning the wrong way!

 

[Hunky Dory]

Re: Bendix won't engage...

Nice diagnosis! I can see myself assuming that it was working correctly until I'd bloodied my fingers taking it on and off.

Reminds me of the guy who rechecked everything for weeks until he realized that his reverse rotation engine required position changes at the distributor cap. Had us ALL going in circles with lots of irrelevant advice...

 

[WillyBWright]

Re: Bendix won't engage...

My father told me years ago about the first differential he ever worked on. When he was done, the car had three gears...in Reverse.

 

[gspig]

Re: Bendix won't engage...

Speaking of bendixes(?). Did you know that the bendix gear for a '72 Chevy Nova 6 cylinder is the same as the one on the Mercruiser 6 cylinder of the same vintage? I was out on the lake for the last time last year when my starter went out. It was late on a Sunday in November, nobody around and no water cops(just like land cops, never around when you need them). The county rescue squad came out and got me after I had been floating around in the dark for a few hours. My wife couldn't get anyone else on the phone.