Posted by Matt Wilson on Thursday, April 17, 2003 at 5:40PM :
In Reply to: 1947 Power Wagon posted by Stephen on Monday, April 14, 2003 at 10:40PM :
I recently had a problem with my starter. It was working just fine one minute, then the next minute, it would engage, and if I pressed harder on the pedal, it would just grind. I took the starter off and found that I could not engage it manually either. The arm sticking out of the starter would move just fine, but the gear would hardly move at all. I took the starter apart, and found that the gear and sliding mechanisms were bound up with old, dried grease. There is a spring between the arm and the gear, that transmits the force from the arm to the gear, so even though the arm would move, the gear stayed in place, while the spring got compressed. I just took everything apart, cleaned out the old grease, and re-greased everything that had grease before, and now the starter works like a champ. Or at least it did when I left town (I've been out of town on business for the last 3 weeks).
Good luck,
Matt