3/7/09 - Starter motor problems
If you have been around off-roaded Suzuki 4x4s you will be used to Starter motor issues.
Suzuki engines locate the starter motor in the most inaccessable position, just where all the dirt and mud can gather. A few weeks back mine started to show problems, these were:
1. Making a loud clunk but not turning
2. No noise at all but the light dimming
3. Clunks and whirrs but does not start engine.
The first symptom is the solenoid engaging but no motor turning, suggesting a problem with the motor. The second symptom is where the solenoid fails to engage at all. The third symptom is where the starter gear has failed to engage with the flywheel.
Mine did all three, but you could usually get it to start by trying again. This was until last Sunday when it completely failed in ASDA car park, I had to get a push from passer-by 
I got home and stripped it down. The motor and soleniod are mounted together. The first picture shows my old starter motor on the top and a replacement one from CAM-SUZUKIÂ - its worth noting that the price was cheaper by phoning them directly than it was on Ebay.
Both starter motors are by Mitisibushi, but mine is off a Japanese Jimny and the repalcement one is from a Spanish Jimny. The Spanish one is shorter which is actually better as it is easier to fit.Â
In the picture mine has the solenoid removed.
The solenoid consists of a contact and coil housing...
...and a spring loaded actuator. The Actuator does two things - it operates the motor contacts and it pulls the starter gear to mesh with the flywheel. As you can see mine was full of mud and needed a clean and grease. If your solenoid does not engage or the starter whirrs without turing the engine you can expect to find this clogged with mud.
The nose of the acutator engages with the actuator arm below, this engages the gear - again note the mud.
Finall, the gear itself. This slides on the shaft and again, any mud in here will stop it. So a good grease and clean should sort it.
The bad news for me was that doing all this still didn't work and the motor failed to spin. I would suspect if I stripped the motor down I would have found the brushes caked in mud. However I got CAM-SUZUKIÂ to send over a replacement motor as I didn't want it to fail in the near future.
I accidently fitted the new one wrong which gave me 24hrs of head scratching. Please note that it is very hard to fit the motor wrongly, it was because I had stripped the new one to grease it and I put it together wrong.
