MTFCA Forum

Helping a buddy out with some "starting" problems - this is what you DON'T want to find ! I thought Ron P. (starter builder retired) & Jeff S. will know the cause of this - now I gotta dig through the shelf ! Hold the damn battery cable tight when tightening it on the stud !!!

A few years ago I bought a kit from Ron Patterson which had the large copper strip. Then I went to visit Tony Bowker who has a very heavy duty soldering iron and we soldered it into place. It has worked very well ever since. To help prevent this from happening, you need to be sure the nut toward the insulator next to the starter housing is tight and that the threads are good so that when you tighten things up it will not turn the post.
Norm

More than a few T starters have been over tightened to the point of breaking the stud from the winding! Nothing new when not thinking of what your doing. I learned the hard way years ago.

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Wasn't some starters riveted to prevent that? Seems every $5 -$10 starter I pick up is that way, and has a bent shaft.
Craig.

The threaded post is riveted and soldered. The best solution is to grind down a thin wrench to fit the nut on the insulat0r, hold that on that nut while you do up the top nut. That will stop the assembly trying to rotate. Same goes for the terminals on original starters switches.

Hope this helps.

Allan from down under.

I recall that Ron Paterson told me that a clue that the stud was loosened was if it got hot to the touch after cranking the starter. It's the first thing I check if someone has a balky starter.

Allan wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 22, 2022 12:20 am

The threaded post is riveted and soldered. The best solution is to grind down a thin wrench to fit the nut on the insulat0r, hold that on that nut while you do up the top nut. That will stop the assembly trying to rotate. Same goes for the terminals on original starters switches.

Hope this helps.

Allan from down under.

Allan, that is the best advice! And use same method on the generator terminal too. Posted this pic I made on earlier threads of same issue.

No matter how you tighten the nut, keep your eye on the stud while tightening and notice if it's beginning to turn. Put a dot on it with a magic marker if you need to.

There is enough thread length in the stud to allow 3 nuts to be used when fitting up. Put one on and run it down, without screwing it so tight it will want to rotate the stud. Then fit two more, and lock them to one another by jamming them together. You can hold this locked pair on the lower nut, and then do up the bottom nut on the insulator, without the threat of the stud turning. Then unlock the top two.

Hope this helps.
Allan from down under.

Not being a fan of the extra nuts, I used a dremel with a cutting wheel to place a slot in the top of the stud. I then use a screw driver to hold the stud when I snug down the nut.

I prepared an article about this common Model T starting motor problem. Ron Patterson

Fabulous tutorial Ron - many thanks !