Is it possible that the starter won't work because of the heat off the engine?

Ok, so my cousin has a 12 hp Murray that he uses to trail ride with. We replaced the starter solenoid yesterday because it was faulty and now we're having trouble with the starter. It started up fine the first two or three times today, but after we rode for about an hour and then took a break it wouldn't start up. It tried (and almost succeeded) at cranking at first, but then it stopped doing anything. We tried crossing over at the solenoid and that wouldn't work either. After a few trys it started smoking pretty bad. Is it possible that the starter won't work because of the heat off the engine? Or could it just be because of the multiple attempts heating it up or draining the battery? I'd like some ideas please

normally electric motors smoke when something is jamming it and its start burning stuff inside. take it apart and make sure everyone spins ok, check the brushes (be careful of brushes when pulling apart the motor). if everything looks good put it back together and try again.

try to find when its smoking from, if its coming from the armature or the commutator, its more than likely to have burnt out.
dont keep making smoke, the more you do it, the more you damage the motor.

mlwinters wrote:

normally electric motors smoke when something is jamming it and its start burning stuff inside. take it apart and make sure everyone spins ok, check the brushes (be careful of brushes when pulling apart the motor). if everything looks good put it back together and try again.

try to find when its smoking from, if its coming from the armature or the commutator, its more than likely to have burnt out.
dont keep making smoke, the more you do it, the more you damage the motor.

alright i'm gonna try to take it apart tomorrow. thanks haha

The starters take alot of abuse - over time dust and wear accumulate inside of them.

Ive taken a few apart and put them back together on a couple briggs motors- just if they have the 'breather' slots in the bottom near the contacts.

You can try using plain carb cleaner sprayed up inside those vents - i find taking em apart, give them a good cleaning, along with polishing the ammutator end with a light grit sandpaper and brushes ( it vastly helps electrical contact) and a dab of grease on the ends where theres bushings( out side the housing) for the thing to spin easier. I clean my starter motors inside with plain carb cleaner, then wipe out the dirt till clean.

When the end is pulled off- springs hold the contacts against the armature - they will fly out if not careful.

If things dont look right, you can get replacement brushes ( if burnt out).

When its ready to go back together, the slots are convienent to push the brushes back in to get it back together - i find using plain regular wire ( similar to bailing wire, its easy to bend, but holds its shape) bent into an L holds the brushes in while reassembling the starter - youll need 4 pieces of wire for the 4 brushes.

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

The starters take alot of abuse - over time dust and wear accumulate inside of them.

Ive taken a few apart and put them back together on a couple briggs motors- just if they have the 'breather' slots in the bottom near the contacts.

You can try using plain carb cleaner sprayed up inside those vents - i find taking em apart, give them a good cleaning, along with polishing the ammutator end with a light grit sandpaper and brushes ( it vastly helps electrical contact) and a dab of grease on the ends where theres bushings( out side the housing) for the thing to spin easier. I clean my starter motors inside with plain carb cleaner, then wipe out the dirt till clean.

When the end is pulled off- springs hold the contacts against the armature - they will fly out if not careful.

If things dont look right, you can get replacement brushes ( if burnt out).

When its ready to go back together, the slots are convienent to push the brushes back in to get it back together - i find using plain regular wire ( similar to bailing wire, its easy to bend, but holds its shape) bent into an L holds the brushes in while reassembling the starter - youll need 4 pieces of wire for the 4 brushes.

Well said sir

Make sure you wait for the starter to completely dry before trying to start it if you are spraying a flammable cleaner up into it.

the battery in my neighbors murray tends to go dead so we keep a length of rope under the seat and if the battery dies we just wrap the rope around the crankshaft or the pulley for the mower deck and give it a good yank. Takes about 6 wraps on the crank shaft for a cold start and 4 for a normal start.

mlwinters wrote:

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

The starters take alot of abuse - over time dust and wear accumulate inside of them.

Ive taken a few apart and put them back together on a couple briggs motors- just if they have the 'breather' slots in the bottom near the contacts.

You can try using plain carb cleaner sprayed up inside those vents - i find taking em apart, give them a good cleaning, along with polishing the ammutator end with a light grit sandpaper and brushes ( it vastly helps electrical contact) and a dab of grease on the ends where theres bushings( out side the housing) for the thing to spin easier. I clean my starter motors inside with plain carb cleaner, then wipe out the dirt till clean.

When the end is pulled off- springs hold the contacts against the armature - they will fly out if not careful.

If things dont look right, you can get replacement brushes ( if burnt out).

When its ready to go back together, the slots are convienent to push the brushes back in to get it back together - i find using plain regular wire ( similar to bailing wire, its easy to bend, but holds its shape) bent into an L holds the brushes in while reassembling the starter - youll need 4 pieces of wire for the 4 brushes.

Well said sir

I took apart the starter on my dynamark once when the gear needed changing to see how everything looked and i really needed that wire idea lol! I think i ended up using finishing nails though eventually....Well, we've made a little progress i guess. I took the starter off yester day and there was a huge crack down the bottom of it and it felt like it was almost rusted tight. We put another one on, and now the starter will turn, but it still wont crank. Its like the starter almost bogs down after a revolution or two and then gets stuck on the flywheel and wont move.

have you tried turning over the engine by hand my mowers starter wouldnt crank it over after i shut it off onne time figured out a valve got stuck

So i found out something today...The battery has a dead cell in it and it wont hold enough of a charge to start it... -_- lol