Fiesta rescue…..

[Nick Jones]

Lady Fiona is indisposed (again). At home fortunately.

A half-hearted attempt to turn over, fail to start, then nothing.  Battery got the blame initially - not guilty guv! Clicking from relays, but not the solenoid. Turning the engine showed it wasn’t stuck halfway.  Its primary carer managed to bump start it and get into the drive so it could be worked on without getting run over. Starter (or solenoid) presumed knackered. Proved hard to test as the bloody thing is buried at the back of the engine under the inlet manifold and battery box (TT deja-vu here!). Was down there today, so we jacked it up and crawled under to view from below. Initial impressions were not favourable at the genius designers at Ford have wrapped the cables into a plastic tidy-block. 
 

Long story short, the battery box got hoicked out, complicated by it being bolted to the engine ECU (bolts mostly underneath!) which has loads of potentially delicate and movement-restricting cables. This made it possible to reach the two upper fixing bolts which surrendered without a fight, as did the single one below. I could them move the whole thing enough to see the two cable bolts that have undone.  Then it was just a matter of wrangling it out through a gap barely big enough. 
 

It’s a cute little permanent magnet motor with planetary reduction gear and looked ok from the outside. Hooked it up to the battery and proved it did nothing much, though the solenoid was drawing enough current to spark. Whipped the solenoid off and apart from corroded connections it looked ok. Cleaned those and reassembled. Now the solenoid clacked but nothing from the motor itself, so that got opened too, revealing all four brushes (axial style) worn completely flat, two them with plenty of arc-pitting. The commutator actually cleaned up well, but the brush packs don’t seem to be available separately for this style of motor so decision was to get a new replacement. Put it back together and tested it (off car!) just for amusement. Worked once….

Fitting the new one won’t be my problem with a bit of luck (I’m 60 miles away again) 

Actually not that bad a job once you know how to do it, but the lack of access or even any view of the parts makes the learning a bit tricky.

Sorry, no pics….

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Oh my. Deja vu there Nick.

Getting at the starter is an absolute pain.

Like you say you can't really see anything and it all has tp be done by feel. 

I hope the elves have the new one in for you when you get back

 

[Nick Jones]

9 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

I hope the elves have the new one in for you

I am the elf in this case…. I got it out and we confirmed the diagnosis together….. he can put it back together again. And change the oil!!