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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Soldering starter brushes

My starter stopped and on closer inspection has very short (worn) brushes so I bought a brush set. One pair of brushes simply bolts in but the other is soldered to the field windings. I have followed the Lucas instruction manual and now need to solder the other pair in. I am having problems getting the solder to melt. I have a 100w gun and it has melted the solder into the flex leads but I don't seem to be able to get the two now covered in solder (old and new) leads to melt together. Is it simply that I need more heat or am I missing something?

I have a 100w gun and a smaller pointed iron for small things.

Any basic help considered as I rarely solder and find it a bit of an a$£e to do.

Thanks in advance, Dave
Dave Squire

I tried soldering brushes once, unsuccessfully.

Although I did get them to stick, when cranking for more than a few seconds, the brushes fell off again!

A friend of mine runs a company that used to recondition starters. They used to spot weld the brushes on.
Dave O'Neill 2

Dave,

I just looked at my gun. It is a dual wattage. 150 / 230 w. So, maybe low power is your problem. I once had to do this repair on the roadside with my truck, and I used a carbon-arc cutting rod attached to the batteries of the truck with jumper cables. It was like TIG welding with solder for the feed rod.

Charley
C R Huff

Wow

Charley that is a MacGyver fix! Pretty inventive with your resources!
Steven Devine

Steven,

Thanks for the complement, but it wasn't so much MacGyver as it was planning for the reality of cross country trucking with a Semi that I paid $800 for, and had on the road for another $400. Other drivers used to laugh at me for all the stuff I packed. When I first started with that truck I carried oxy-acetylene torches. And, I actually used those torches more than once while I was on the road.

Charley
C R Huff

Right,

Dug out wife's brother's old heat it in the flames soldering iron that belonged to their great uncle who was a tool maker in the Black Country circa end of the 19th century. Will try that!

Update soon.
Dave Squire

Spot on, just purrfect! Tried some force to pull it off and had to be careful to not bend the end of the windings where it is attached.

Now to reassemble.

Thanks chaps :-)
Dave Squire

LOL! Those old welding irons with a great solid copper soldering tip on the end are fantastic at holding a good temperature for heavy duty work. The idea seems primitive but they beat a modern electric soldering iron hands down for this sort of task.
Guy Weller

LoL Guy the 'primitive'. Just about sums it up. There was smoke an everythin, (I insulated the heat away from the electrical insulator with a slip of thick wood veneer). Just great. A good big un beats a good little un!

The starter is back together and test runs off the car. That's 100% better than before the fix. Much simpler and cheaper than I thought possible.

Now for a remount and some more drivin.
Dave Squire

Great stuff it works really well. Brushes £4.35 carriage 35p from M.U.R.E on flee bay. :-)
Dave Squire

This thread was discussed between 23/07/2014 and 24/07/2014

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