12v goes to starter, yes?

I suspect the starter solenoid being bad on my 82 maxim, so I bypassed it temporarily and ran a hot wire directly to the starter. All it does is spark--why? Shouldn't that force the starter to turn over?

When I push the starter button, I get about 1v, give or take, coming off the starter side of the solenoid. Shouldn't that be all 12? I'll give the battery a good charge, of course, but i still suspect something else and am new to working on bikes in general.

Thank you!

 

now i'm finding that the relay actually "sticks" sometimes, heating up the ground wire pretty good. during this time, it's all locked up and i can't do anything--the light is off, the gauge is off, all that. if i d/c the battery it resets but i can hear it audibly click when it lets go when i leave the battery connected. sound like the relay or the starter switch or what? gonna try a relay i know to work from another xj but unsure what the actual issue is.

 

Never mind.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All it does is spark--why? Shouldn't that force the starter to turn over?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
er-- well --yeh, all things being in order!!
instead of running a separate wire, why not try shorting the 2 large terminals on the solenoid ,together with a large screwdriver or the like,
and it will spark!! cos you're putting starter current through the wire.
was the tempory wire you ran ,big enough to carry starter current?
if nothing turns when you short the solenoid terminals
1. make sure battery is good a fully charged.
2 clean all battery terminals and solenoid terminals and starter terminals
3 check earth terminals and engine earth strap
4 if all above check out ok then its the starter
stu

 

Okay, I found the problem, it was simpler than i thought. Bike turns over--didn't occur to me that the hot wire might be grounding out on the starter body, but that's exactly what was happening.

 

thank you for the ideas, bensalf!

 

Yay!!

 

Okay! update!


I got a new starter in, but I’m wanting to rebuild the old one via instructions/help I found here: http://www.xj4ever.com/starter brush replacement.pdf


I got the starter apart, and it was sooo neat! I wasn’t expecting it to be that simple. I also thought it nifty how the magnetic field works and basically keeps that whole center winding in.


Anyhow, on to the trouble. After popping my starter apart I found the wire from the power post to the brush was busted off, just lying around. aha, I thought, I’ll just solder it back onto it and have a working spare!


Nope, busted the brush immediately. Either it was already cracked or hated the heat from my iron, but whatever the reason, it’s in two and now I need a new brush set.


My questions are basically these:


1. where to get a new brush set and


2. how does the armature extend to contact the flywheel when power is applied? Does the whole bit go forward or just the arm? I can't quite figure that part out.


thanks a ton in advance!

 

A bit of the progress earlier:

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
how does the armature extend to contact the flywheel when power is applied? Does the whole bit go forward or just the arm? I can't quite figure that part out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
no its not like a car starter, the armature doesn't move forward, the gear is permanently meshed with the starter clutch.
when starting , a series of roller bearings and springs, "sprag" themselves on the , er, "flywheel".
once running the rollers simply "freewheel"
stu

 

oh, as for the brushes, they should be available, from "chacal"
click on the "xj forever" logo at the top of the pages
stu

 

It's "xj4ever" .....

Dave f

 

Thanks! I got his email and hit him up last night, the guy's quick! Brushes sure are cheaper than a starter haha.

 

Rubbing alcohol will clean the armature w/o harm. Make certain the commutator (the part the brushes contact) is clean of all debris. Also make sure the orientation of the bolt grommet is correct so it won't interfer with the brush. Lastly and fwiw trying to align, seat and hold the brush plate in place and feed the bolt through the case can be a pita the first time.

Gary H.

 

thanks for the info! Yeah, i'm figuring i'll have some fun getting this thing back together, but it sure is fun!