Morris Minor Owners Club

Mildred has really thrown me a curve ball this time! On trying to start her this am I got the old clunk of the starter motor jamming I think - the solenoid still clicks. "No probs" thought I "free it up and when you get a mo pop it out for a bit of bendix love". But that's when things went South: couldn't turn the old square nut by even a millmetre, starting handle wouldn't turn the engine, rocking back and forth/ side to side etc. all tried. "Buggeration" I cried and grabbed a lift to work. On my return though things got worse - I elected to remove the Starter to work on it - but after removing the bots etc. it won't budge... AT ALL! The back plate looks likes its almost fused to the engine plate, not a gap in sight, and there ain;t a whole lot of room to start swinging the old heavy persuader so I'm more than a little stumped. Thoughts gratefully received!

No space to get a persuader close by? So what is wrong with a piece of suitable timber between starter and persuader? Go steady with the force, mind, if thumping it...

Was the car in gear with hand brake off, when you rocked it back and forth

It is not unusual for the starter to be 'locked in place' if the Bendix jams on the starter ring.
As above - a length of timber placed down through the engine bay and resting on top of the starter - a good whack on the end of the timber with a hammer and the starter should come free.

Thanks all - the bendix was indeed jammed and took some persuading to come free (using the timber method prescribed by your good selves - obvious but I didn;t think of it)! Unfortunately the flywheel has chewed off bendix teeth so I'm now fishing around trying to get as many little bits of metal (they go from 4mm size down to iron filings!) out as possible before installing the repaired starter. Magnet fishing while drinking a beer or two I think - it should be OK though: surely the bits of metal will just sit in the bottom of the gear box rather than getting into the engine proper?

If the Bendix has chewed off teeth from the ring gear you should as a minimum change the ring gear otherwise there is a good possibility that the starter will jam again and may do more serious damage.
Unfortunately it does mean either the engine of gearbox out to rectify.
There is not much room in the flywheel/clutch housing so any metal can damage the gearbox casing and/or clutch assy.

Although you say the teeth are off the bendix have you checked the ring gear?

As Phil says I would be very suprised if there was that much damage on the Bendix and nothing on the ring gear.

And then there is the bits of teeth, you may get lucky but theres a good chance they will end up in the clutch and cause further problems.

You may get away with putting a new bendix on for a while, but I would plan to pull the gearbox if you are after long term reliability.

Thanks both - I think you are right: I'll try to schedule in some workshop time to pull the gearbox and replace the fly wheel. She'll have to last a little while on the new bendix though: got to get to work somehow!
Jim

Starting handle?