starter motor (wiring fault)

[kieronriley]

i have an old 70s mercury outboard .(i have inherited)the starter would not spin ,so i took it apart and found that the brushes where effectively non existent so i fitted new brushes ,one soldered to the plate and one screwed. the starter spins now but ,it spins the same way that the Bendix needs to spin to enable it to engage ? would it make any difference if I swapped the wires from there positions ie the brush that is soldered to the plate switched over to the one that is screwed on .Have i wired the brushes wrong . I do hope you can understand what i have asked, thanks for reading .Kieron

 

[kieronriley]

it spins clockwise

 

[snowbird30ds]

If it has permanent magnets (likely) then swapping the brushes polarity should swap the direction of the motor.

 

[Alex_Blackwood]

i have an old 70s mercury outboard .(i have inherited)the starter would not spin ,so i took it apart and found that the brushes where effectively non existent so i fitted new brushes ,one soldered to the plate and one screwed. the starter spins now but ,it spins the same way that the Bendix needs to spin to enable it to engage ? would it make any difference if I swapped the wires from there positions ie the brush that is soldered to the plate switched over to the one that is screwed on .Have i wired the brushes wrong . I do hope you can understand what i have asked, thanks for reading .Kieron

Changing the polarity of the current through the armature should change direction. Possibly as already stated it may be permanent Magnet. have you checked that the connections to the motor are not reversed? possibly more likely than the brushes having been altered.

 

[kieronriley]

i have swapped the wires around on the starter switch and its the same

 

[Alex_Blackwood]

i have swapped the wires around on the starter switch and its the same

Swap the brush connections.

 

[snowbird30ds]

All the starter switch does is power the solenoid, it will still give the starter the same polarity and it likely grounded through the motor body anyway so you'd have to swap the brush wiring inside the starter, an unusual thing to be wrong though.
When the starter was apart did you have the casing with the magnets off entirely? Could be back together with magnets upside down, I had a 9.9 mariner motor apart last week and that one would be easy to assemble either way round.

 

[Boater Sam]

I think you have the magnet can on the wrong way round end to end if you see what I mean.

 

[Alex_Blackwood]

I think you have the magnet can on the wrong way round end to end if you see what I mean.

Both BS and Snowbird could be correct. try swapping the body if you think it may be the case. I would try end for end or even rotate 180 deg. (although that may be unlikely). It will depend how the magnets have been arranged. I would also put the starter switch connections in the correct orientation. We are assuming that it is a permanent magnet motor. Again all a bit of a guess with on line diagnosis. I did at one stage consider whether the magnets (or field) could have been reverse "Flashed" magnetically. Have had that happen with DC motors. But that is an aside so ignore in this case.