Starter motor

After decades of reliable service, the Rover K-Series starter motor can become anemic and drain a marginal battery pretty quickly.

A service of the starter motor can bring it back to its original starting power.

1. The starter motor has a permanent live cable running to the battery in the front service compartment.  Make sure the disconnect the battery before servicing the starter as it is very easy to short that cable accidentally.
2. The starter is earthed to the chassis (big black wire).  It’s a good idea to check and clean the earth connections from the battery to the front of the chassis and from the starter to the rear of the chassis. A poor earth will rob the starter of power.
3. You need to remove the starter to service it; with the early bootbag S1, this can be done easily by removing the bootbag and bootpanel.  For later models, not sure how this is done, perhaps from the left side wheel well, or certainly easy to do access if the rear clam is off.
4. Once the battery is isolated, you can remove the earth, live and the trigger cables from the starter unit. Clean all these connections while here.
5. You need to remove the two M12 bolts that hold the starter to the bellhousing.  These are torqued to 80NM and have nuts on the other end of the bolts, so you will need a breaker bar and spanner on the nuts to be able to remove the bolts.
6. The starter can then be removed from the engine bay for servicing.
7. Remove the two long bolts that sandwich the assembly together.
8. Remove the two screws that hold the brush holder to the rear housing.
9. At this point you can split the unit to give it a good clean of all the carbon deposits (eg with contact cleaner) and treat any rust which may begin to take hold inside the housing.
10. Visually check for any burnt wiring or connections.  Inspect the brushes on the brush holder and the commutator segments.  They shouldn’t be too worn.
11. With a multi-meter set to lowest ohm settings, you can test the continuity of the windings on the commutator segments, first each segment to the core (should be OL – ie no shorts), then each to its next to its neighbor (should be about 0.3ohms), then each segment against its opposite side. (should be the same).
12. Carefully disassemble and give the drive housing and internal gears a good clean out with brake cleaner.  Very lightly regrease the gears with a good heavy duty Molybdenum-based grease. Reassemble.
13. Inspect and lightly grease the front and rear brash bushes before reassembly.
14. Fit the armature back into the housing
15. To fit the brush holders, it is easiest to release the springs from each holder, refit the brush holder and then pop the springs back in.
16. Replace the rear cover and replace the 2 long bolts and two machine screws.
17. Refit the starter, torqueing the two M12 bolts to 80NM.
18. Refit the earth, live and starter trigger wires to the solenoid.  There may be one un-used tab on the solenoid which should be capped or taped off.
19. Reconnect that battery. Job Done!