Chuck52
Veteran Member
My old L210 began to be hard to start at the end of last season's mowing adventures. I checked all the cable connections and replaced the cables because they looked pretty corroded, and determined that the battery was OK by swapping the batteries with my truck. It just didn't want to crank as strongly as it should. So, that pretty much left the starter as the problem, unless I was getting more serious engine problems.
Not too hard to pull the starter....just had to disconnect one hydraulic line, remove the cables, and take out two bolts. I figured maybe the brushes were shot, or perhaps the contacts were suffering from corrosion. It's a 30 year old tractor, after all. Turns out my starter doesn't match up with the diagram in the shop manual I have, but I figured it out. I was surprised to find that the solenoid acts as a relay for the motor in addition to kicking the starter gear into the flywheel gear. Is this common with diesel starters? In most auto starters I've worked on, the solenoid just moves the gear, so that it is possible for the starter to spin without engaging with the flywheel. With this starter, if the solenoid doesn't kick in, no juice goes to the starter motor.
There were at least two or three possible problems that might have caused the poor cranking. The brushes were OK, though two were shorter than the other two, so I swapped the positions. The short ones still have plenty of life in them, which is good, because replacements might be hard to find. The contacts on the shaft were somewhat dirty, and I cleaned them up and blew and brushed the crud out. Because of the design, the contacts for the starter power, which feed through the solenoid body, are electrically isolated from the solenoid body, and at least one of the insulating washers needed replacing. I think the main problem was that the power line from the starter motor to the contact on the solenoid was badly corroded. This is a thin copper strap about 0.5x3", which is connected through but isolated from the starter body. I cleaned it up and soldered on a piece of copper to replace what was missing. I'll find out this afternoon if I've fixed it all, but I thought I'd see if this solenoid as relay design is common.
Chuck
Not too hard to pull the starter....just had to disconnect one hydraulic line, remove the cables, and take out two bolts. I figured maybe the brushes were shot, or perhaps the contacts were suffering from corrosion. It's a 30 year old tractor, after all. Turns out my starter doesn't match up with the diagram in the shop manual I have, but I figured it out. I was surprised to find that the solenoid acts as a relay for the motor in addition to kicking the starter gear into the flywheel gear. Is this common with diesel starters? In most auto starters I've worked on, the solenoid just moves the gear, so that it is possible for the starter to spin without engaging with the flywheel. With this starter, if the solenoid doesn't kick in, no juice goes to the starter motor.
There were at least two or three possible problems that might have caused the poor cranking. The brushes were OK, though two were shorter than the other two, so I swapped the positions. The short ones still have plenty of life in them, which is good, because replacements might be hard to find. The contacts on the shaft were somewhat dirty, and I cleaned them up and blew and brushed the crud out. Because of the design, the contacts for the starter power, which feed through the solenoid body, are electrically isolated from the solenoid body, and at least one of the insulating washers needed replacing. I think the main problem was that the power line from the starter motor to the contact on the solenoid was badly corroded. This is a thin copper strap about 0.5x3", which is connected through but isolated from the starter body. I cleaned it up and soldered on a piece of copper to replace what was missing. I'll find out this afternoon if I've fixed it all, but I thought I'd see if this solenoid as relay design is common.
Chuck