[V8] RE: V8 Starter Dilemma

[dsaad at icehouse.net]

That is a clever setup. I wonder if "everyone" does it this way?

My 1971 Jeepster Commando (even more rare than a 1991 V8Q, and very cool but a
complete POS in most ways) had its starter go bad. I replaced the drive gear and
somehow forgot to put the solenoid return spring back in. Sometime later the
battery went bad - but very oddly if I just held the key in the start position
for a while, the starter would eventually turn the motor over and it would start
(after a few seconds of total silence). It seemed like magic. It turned out that
the extra 30 amps that the solenoid needed to hold in the drive gear could be
diverted to the starter motor. Normally the solenoid would do the charactoristic
"chatter" and never really turn the starter motor shaft.
I never noticed the missing spring I guess because the flywheel just threw the
gear back when the starter turned off. I keep this trick in my bag of emergency
road repair tricks.

Dave


Quoting "Stafford, Kenneth A." <stafford at WPI.EDU>:

>
> > From the drawing on page 27-100-1 When Terminal 50 is
> > energized by 12V from
> > the ignition switch the solenoid relay closes and current
> > travels from Terminal 30 (Battery) to the starter armature.
> > Grounding the armature would result in a dead short of the
> > battery Terminal 30 every time you turn the key.
> >
> Jeff,
>
> You mistake what I mean.  I suggested grounding the end of the solenoid wire
> not the armature post!  It turns out on further investigation that there are
> two independent circuit paths (coils) through the solenoid.  One
> low-impedance coil does connect directly to the armature post--meaning that
> it is effectively out of the circuit once the solenoid travel has reached
> the
> point where the motor contacts are made.  The other coil is a relatively
> higher impedance (~1.5 Ohm) that is internally grounded meaning that it
> continues to hold the solenoid in position even after the higher current
> coil
> is deenergized.  Clever system--sort of a 2-speed solenoid...  I am still
> convinced that the drawing on 27-100-1 is wrong.
>
> Ken
> _______________________________________________
> Audifans V8 mailing list
> Send posts to: mailto:V8 at audifans.com
> Manage your list connection: http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/v8
> Have an Audi V8 question?  Check the Audifans Knowledgebase!
> http://www.audi-quattro.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Audi/V8
> Have a V8 answer? ... Please help others by adding to the KB ... all
> contributions welcome!
>