I got the starter apart today. I found the commutator at the bottom. The brushes looked good, and there was infinite resistance from each wedge of the pie to the shaft.
I pulled the armature out of the casing (little tricky; at first I thought it was somehow spring-loaded, but turns out it was the permanent magnets inside the case causing the resistance).
After it was out, I turned it over and re-inserted the shaft from the top, just so I could check the play in the bushing without the armature in the casing. It had more play than I would have expected.
I had already ordered a cheap starter from eBay. (I know, I know! I got stranded a few years ago with a bad starter and had to call Sea Tow. Since then, I've made it a habit to have a spare starter on board.)
So anyway, with the new starter in and two batteries in parallel, it turned over real good.
Nonetheless...... during the compression test, it still went to a certain pressure and kicked off like it did before!
But the compression readings were a little higher and closer together than previously:
110 (kicked off), 110 (kicked off), 100 (kicked off), 100, 95, 110. (The three that kicked off were all on the port side, FWIW.)
That cylinder that measured 95, was 90 before, so the pressure on the "low" cylinder is getting better each time I run it.
The motor also started very easily, and idled fairly well. It wanted to backfire intermittently, and the backfiring became less pronounced and less frequent at higher RPMs. (Tach doesn't work yet, so I couldn't measure RPMs.)
I DO know it's leaking fuel around more than one of the carburetor bowls.
Would that make it run lean on the leaking carbs? That could explain the backfiring. Guess plain ol' dirt could do that, too.
Just want to have some assurance that the compression is tolerable (if not optimal), before I do the other stuff.
I pulled the armature out of the casing (little tricky; at first I thought it was somehow spring-loaded, but turns out it was the permanent magnets inside the case causing the resistance).
After it was out, I turned it over and re-inserted the shaft from the top, just so I could check the play in the bushing without the armature in the casing. It had more play than I would have expected.
I had already ordered a cheap starter from eBay. (I know, I know! I got stranded a few years ago with a bad starter and had to call Sea Tow. Since then, I've made it a habit to have a spare starter on board.)
So anyway, with the new starter in and two batteries in parallel, it turned over real good.
Nonetheless...... during the compression test, it still went to a certain pressure and kicked off like it did before!
But the compression readings were a little higher and closer together than previously:
110 (kicked off), 110 (kicked off), 100 (kicked off), 100, 95, 110. (The three that kicked off were all on the port side, FWIW.)
That cylinder that measured 95, was 90 before, so the pressure on the "low" cylinder is getting better each time I run it.
The motor also started very easily, and idled fairly well. It wanted to backfire intermittently, and the backfiring became less pronounced and less frequent at higher RPMs. (Tach doesn't work yet, so I couldn't measure RPMs.)
I DO know it's leaking fuel around more than one of the carburetor bowls.
Would that make it run lean on the leaking carbs? That could explain the backfiring. Guess plain ol' dirt could do that, too.
Just want to have some assurance that the compression is tolerable (if not optimal), before I do the other stuff.
