Plymouth Owners Club

Hi
Who sells rebuilt starters? I need a starter motor, has the floor pusher, for a '41 ply 4 door. Any ideas?
Jean
???

Hi Jean,

A great source to start for Dodge and Plymouth parts would be Moore's Auto Salvage. If they don't have it, they will refer you to a source.Their web address is: www.mooresautosalvage.com . I hope that I have been of some help.

W.W.

You might have a hard time finding a new or rebuilt starter.

I took mine to an old time auto shop, had new windings put in.

Also keep an eye on ebay, as every once in awhile starters are listed.

Another person you could try is Lindsay McConnell, he has been a great help to me

Good luck,

Bob

Then and Now lists that they rebuild Starters

http://www.then-now.com/

As far as salvage yards, I have bought from Texas Acres with good results.

http://www.texasacres.com/

Moores has been unsatisfactory as they did not respond to my e-mails requesting information and when I called them they remembered that I emailed them and said" We never answered You did we?'? ?Then they promised to call me with the information and never did.? This was in summer so they cannot blame 10 feet of snow for no answer.?

This may sound stupid, but are u sure your existing starter is bad?  I thought the one in my 40 pickup was bad, and after having it in and out a few times , a couple of trips to the starter motor shop, and much  frustration, it turned out I was using 12 volt cables rather than 6 volt cables.  Made alll the difference in the world- still spins like a top each time I step on the pedal

I agree John. These old starters are pretty tough. Does the starter actually have a known fault? The most common fault and one that does require a shop rewind is one of the armature windings shorted to the the armature shaft. Take an ohmmeter(or a 12 volt bulb in series with a car battery) and see if there is any path from any of the copper segments on the commutator to the main shaft. There should be none.Then see if there is continuity between all the pairs of seqments on the armature.(If there is an 'open winding' or a 'shaft short', there will be an ugly burn and etching on one or more of the copper segments.)? Then check for continuity in the field windings on the outer shell or a short from the field windings to the case. (Depending on the configuration circuit of the starter, some fields could be legitimately connected to the outer case. This would NOT be a 'short'. Look for the point at which the field is connected to the outer shell and temporarily disconnect it.)
? ? These were the 'fatal' faults that meant a trip to the electrical shop. If all these tests pan out then it just needs a little TLC. (One other fault that comes to mind is the end sleeve bearings for the armature shaft. If the there is a lot of wear in either of them, the shaft could be pulled off center during energizing and physically bind the armature to the field windings. These bearings are just brass sleeves and can be replaced on a home bench.)

Hi, Jean,

If you haven't gotten a usable starter by now, give me an e-mail,

We have a number of those '40's 6V starters here.......but there are some variations in different years/models, in terms of the actuating lever and some differences in the cast housing for the drive.

With some of these, its possible to 'mix and match' components to arrive at a correct assembly, of good serviceable parts, as there is quite a bit of interchange......a photo of yours would help.

cheers

Carla