Morris Minor Owners Club

help guys in the middle of engine swap A+ into my convertible.

When fitting starter motor the dog is still engaged withe the flywheel.It is as tho' the starter shaft is not long enough or the flywheel is too far away from the engine plate.

It is the usual following the manual,replaced 1275 backplate with the 1098, drilled the 1098 flywheel so that it fits the 1275 bolts.

I bought a new starter,have I got the wrong one or is the 1275 and 1098 the same model.

anyone any ideas please before we start taking the engine out to see what's what.A big thankyou

Dont panic !!! you need the 1098 starter but you need to either space the dog drive further away from the flywheel or machine some metal from the mounting face of the starter - either way you need to move the dog further towards the rear of the car or it will not completely disengage as you have found out. No need to remove engine - just the starter motor

i think off hand you need about a 6 mm spacer,

It seemingly doesn't happen with every starter motor - so if you have another one - try it first!

all the starter moters i have had in stock it does

it is a common mod to the starter moter on an ital 1275 or marina 1275

Anyone got a picture or diagram of where this spacer goes ?

thanks for all the input but still not clear to me ,yes I am stupid. I have a diagram of the spacer ,it's on an old thread on here .I,ve no access at the moment to it.

I have the spacer fitted already but unless I am wrong this to stop it going too far in onto the flywheel ie. towards the front, My problem is the dog does not go far enough back to get off the flywheel ie. towards the back.the shaft does not appear long enough ,the retainer at the back stops it and so is always loosely rattleing agaisnt the fly wheel .or it could be the flywheel is further back ,towards rear of car .it some how is proud of the fittings on the crank.

Sorry I know its confusing.is the starter motor the same lengh shaft for the 1098 and the 1275?

thanks once again

Well - that starter was never used with a Marina engine in an A series - so there is no 'wrong' starter. The spacer I believe is to put the dog further towards the back of the car - to clear the flywheel ring gear - i'm interested to see how that's done with a spacer. Maybe the answer will be to go with a pre-engaged starter - although the ring gear should then be turned round on the flywheel first. many have fitted the Marina engine - using the normal starter motor - so it obviously is possible! perhaps your spacer is not thick enough - can you add a washer or two ? Any chance of posting up a picture of the starter -with spacer fitted ?

Pretty sure that's designed for the larger diameter flywheel and Dolomite type gearbox - dunno if it will suit the 1098 flywheel - can't see it being any different to the normal 1098 starter.
Still interested to see where this spacer goes !

bmcecosse wrote: Still interested to see where this spacer goes !

You have to remove the spring & bendix then fit the spacer onto the shaft this stops reduces the bendix travel.
Not sure about the origial problem though, if no one has done it by tomorrow I will measure up the spindle length then at least Ozzie will havw a comparison measurement.

Yes - I see that from an old Burton leaflet I have - and for the life of me I don't see how that would solve this problem ! The 'spacer' stops the bendix coming down too far - but in this case (and others recently) the bendix needs to be furher away - to the rear - of the flywheel!
Hence my interest to see how that problem is solved !
If I get a chance in the next day or two - I'm going to do a trial assembly on the bench - to see what's really going on here!

Yes you are right the spacer is to prevent the bendix coming too far down the shaft towards the front of the car .I have got that perfectly and it is about 6mm in width.

bmcecosse you are exactly correct the bendix needs to be further awy from the flywheel towards back of car. when looking at the back of the flywheel it "seems" instinctively too far from the 1098 backplate -the gap is about 6mm or more ??? just about the apparant shortness of the shaft.As though there is non totally flat back of flywheel. do you get different flywheel profiles?..I suppose a way is to grind down the bendix a bit! anybody done this and is there a danger of weakining it.

thanks once again for taking time to think about it.

Ian

In all the 1275's i have had, i have never had this problem! Maybe i'm just lucky??

I have heard of different thicknesses of backplate. Would that make a difference?

I will try to have a look into this tomorrow - and I have several starters to compare. It 'may be possible to trim down the heavy 'catching' spring - rather than shortening the bendix !

on my 1275 i did not have a problem with the bendix being long enough, but had to put the spacer in to stop the travel

That' seems to be the 'traditional ' problem - was it a Marina engine, with a modified 1098 flywheel Dennis ?

it waqs an ital engine
and it had a laser cut back plate to suit the engine so maybe thats the difference

Do you happen to know the thickness of that backplate ? From what I have gleaned so far of this problem - a thinner backplate would help !