Dynastarter issue

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OhioPinz
Posts: 160
Joined: Fri May 13, 2005 9:41 am
Location: Middletown, Ohio

Dynastarter issue

Post by OhioPinz »

My Pathfinder is running great however....

Now, often the Daynastarter does not activate when I hit the key. I hear the solenoid clicking not it doesn't activate the Dynastarter. Battery is new and good. When it randonly does activate, it runs strong and the motor fires right up. Yesteday, after many try over an afternoon, it activated but then wouldn't stop running. When I shut of the mother, it fired it right back up again. I had to stall it in 3rd gear it have it stop. Turning off the key did nothing.

I'm not great wih electrical. All help appreciated. Failing solenoid?
Heinkeljb
Great Britain
Posts: 391
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:09 pm
Location: Lewes,Southern England

Re: Dynastarter issue

Post by Heinkeljb »

You hit it on the head! Your solenoid is suffering from two problems. First one is the the POWER contacts which actually make the circuit to the Dynastart are carboned up and do not make good contact. Sometimes when it hits home, the arc is enough to burn through the carbon layer and make good contact and supply enough current to turn the Dynastart.
Second issue is the there is a spring inside the solenoid which pushes a rod up the middle. the rod is attached to the copper bar which close the circuit as above. The rod is sticking in the shaft and the spring is not man enough to push it up when the energising current to the solenoid is turned off.
It is possible to take the solenoid apart and clean every thing up, but as a minimum you will need a high wattage soldering iron to melt the solder on one of the wires.

I wrote this up a while ago, but haven't gotten round to adding the pictures. If you need those let me know and I'll add them.

This is basically a quick "how to" on solving a sticking starter solenoid.

You will know if you have a solenoid that stays on after you have let go of the starter button. Nothing you can do to stop it turning the Dynastart except to disconnect the battery. Trouble is, you don't always know if it is sticking on if the engine fires up and runs... Except that it will wear your brushes out quickly.
So what do you do?

1: Disconnect the battery
2: Disconnect all the wires going to the starter solenoid.
3: Remove the starter solenoid from the engine side panel. There are two machine screws holding it in place (useless flat blade screw driver heads)
4: Undo the two flat blade screws on the bottom of the solenoid and take the cover off.
bottom of solenoid with metal cover.jpg
bottom of solenoid with metal cover.jpg (274.91 KiB) Viewed 1718 times
5: Undo the two flat blade screws on the top cover - you do not need to take the two locking nuts of the cable posts.
top of solenoid showing screws and wire to de-solder.jpg
top of solenoid showing screws and wire to de-solder.jpg (138.54 KiB) Viewed 1718 times
6: You now need a "Instant heat" soldering iron of at least 100 watts.
7: Unsolder the wire which comes through the Bakerlite top on to the spade connector. Use either a de-soldering vacuum pump or solder wick to remove the solder.
8: Whilst heating the remaining solder you can pull the Bakerlite top up and off the wire. Clean the hole as you need to put the wire back through there
on the re-build.
9. Look inside the Barkerlite top and you will see two copper contacts - probably black and pitted. You need to clean these up, make them shiny!
solenoid open showing copper contact bar.jpg
solenoid open showing copper contact bar.jpg (191.74 KiB) Viewed 1718 times
10: Now look at the top of the solenoid itself. The copper bar will also be black and pitted. Use a fine file to clean the two faces up, make them shiny as well.
11. Use some oil, spray grease, PlusGas, WD40 etc, to put down the centre hole of the solenoid.Leave it for a few minutes to work its way down the shaft.
12: Turn the solenoid upside down, Clean up the brass centre post and again lubricate it.
bottom of solenoid without metal cover.jpg
bottom of solenoid without metal cover.jpg (142.53 KiB) Viewed 1718 times
13: Push the brass centre post into the solenoid - let go, it should spring back. More lubrication and more pressing / letting go of the brass centre should make it move smoothly and easily.
14: Make sure the bottom cover is cleaned of any old grease / crud / etc.
15: Use some non-setting gasket sealant to put a seal all round the edge. Put the cap back on and do up the two screws.
16: Turn the solenoid back over. Use some more non-setting sealant to seal round the edge so when the Bakerlite top is put back on it provides a good seal. There is a gasket on there, but it probably has seen better days and wont keep the water out just by itself.
top of solenoid showing screws covered with grease and wire soldered.jpg
top of solenoid showing screws covered with grease and wire soldered.jpg (231.44 KiB) Viewed 1718 times
17: Put the Bakerlite top back on make sure the wire from the coil goes up through the hole to the spade connector.
18: Put the two screws in and do them up.
19: Use the soldering iron again with new solder to solder the wire from the coil back on to the spade connector tag.
20: Couple of small things to do now; put some sealant on to the two bottom screws to stop ant water from going in via them. Put some grease on top of the two screws in the Bakerlite top. (Why grease? Well, it is easier to remove if you need to open it back up again than getting sealant out!)
21: All Done, bar installing it back in the Haflinger.

Now I am quite sure some one will have forgotten to make a note of where the wires go! So for those people here are the details.

1: The thick wire from the Dynastart goes to the big post on the solenoid nearest the front of the vehicle.
2: The thick wire from the Battery goes to the big post on the solenoid nearest the rear of the vehicle.
3: The two red wires with ring tags on them go to the big post on the solenoid nearest he rear of the vehicle.
4: The brown wire with the female spade connector goes to the spade connector tag on the solenoid.

This is how mine was wired - a 1973 LWB 703 - Yours might be different, so better that you make a note of which wires go where before you take the solenoid out!

I took pictures, I have now added some picture which i hope will make things clearer as you follow this "How to". Hope it helps someone deal with theirs considering the original Bosch Starter solenoids are no longer available.

John
Last edited by Heinkeljb on Thu Sep 07, 2017 3:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jim Molloy
United States of America
Posts: 364
Joined: Sun May 30, 2004 2:16 pm
Location: Sheridan, Oregon
Contact:

Re: Dynastarter issue

Post by Jim Molloy »

...or you may choose to simply replace your solenoid with a fresh unit.

Take care.

Jim Molloy
Waldersee Farm
http://www.northwestmogfest.com
Heinkeljb
Great Britain
Posts: 391
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:09 pm
Location: Lewes,Southern England

Re: Dynastarter issue

Post by Heinkeljb »

Not easy to find an original solenoid now-a-days. Plenty of useable replacements if that the way you want to go.

John
M Wehrman
United States of America
Posts: 847
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2004 9:46 pm
Location: Gilbert, Az.

Re: Dynastarter issue

Post by M Wehrman »

I use Ford starter solenoids, work great,under $10
Stock means no imagination!


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68 Haffy
OhioPinz
Posts: 160
Joined: Fri May 13, 2005 9:41 am
Location: Middletown, Ohio

Re: Dynastarter issue

Post by OhioPinz »

Thanks everyone for the help. I didn't know if the dynastarter was any different in it's requirements than a starter motor. As it is not, I indeed just bought a Ford solenoid/relay. $15.00 and problem solved.
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