BenZ190D

2004 C230 Kompressor Sport with 152,000 miles.

Finally, I could reassemble the motor with new brushes. Before assemble back, the stay turns well with brushes in good contact. But to my surprise, when I apply briefly 12V from a battery. The shoot-out gear doesn't even move. It did before the rebuild.

Could my pre-rebuild test with jumper cable damaged the circuit? I only brushed the cable end to the battery during that test. What can I do to isolate the problem?

thanks much!

C230 Sport Coup

Any auto electrics shops locally that rebuild starters and alternators?
Update your profile with a location please.

BenZ190D

Just returned from a week-long vacation.

I'm in northern NJ. there is a reputed shop Rudy & Victor that rebuild starter motors. But I would like to learn the rope, so decide to fix it as much as feasible. I bought a set of brushes more than twice the dimensions, cut them by half, ground to the right size and squeez the original wire into a narrow gap cut into it, and then used solder to fix the wire in the brush. The newer brushes are mostly copper, so this works well.

Since it's likely I have damaged the solenoid circuit, I bought one from ebay - just to salvage the circuit for use in my starter motor.

Anyone can share some insight if the solenoid in the starter motor can be repaired and how?

C230 Sport Coup

You know, I pulled my starter, cleaned all the carbon crud out from
old brushes, took it to an alternator shop, and had new brushes put in,
for what was it $15 or $25 in about 10 minutes, and they even tested it.
Seriously. Unless you are in Kfrackistan, Ogaboogastan, or some other backward land hanging with Borat, just go to an alternator shop. You're saving yourself about 10 cents an hour for the time you are spending.
I seriously doubt there's an issue with the solenoid.

BenZ190D

Wow, thanks so much for sharing that information. I thought it would cost me at least a hundred bucks, as a rebuild is priced at $279.


If I had known that, I wouldn't have ordered a new brush-set from Germany that took a week to deliver while I had to take a rental car for $270 - really, really dumb!

C230 Sport Coup

That being said, I think I failed to lubricate it adequately, and it makes a horrendous noise, and sort of sticks, grinds, (and I plan to replace it this time, since I don't have a place to work on it, and will be renting a lift for $30 an hour and doing trans fluid and filter at the same time) but heck, I got another 100K miles on it.
Local junkyards want $50, so I'll likely get one, and have it rebuilt or
again, just replace the brushes, but this time, make sure it's lubed and pay attention o
the where it needs lube before i clean the sheet out it with electric cleaner.

Of course I could just buy one off the web new for like $80 but
it's some gawd awful Chinese crap. That being said.....
Check my thread from like mmmm 8 years ago on starters.
The stock starter is made by Magnetti Marelli (yes Italian!) but they outsourced it to
Denso, so it's actually made in Japan. Freakin' nuts.

Eh, you updated your profile. You from Jersey?
I lived 4 miles from the Shore near Red Bank (on the west coast we say 'coast')
as a teenager for 7 years. Spent my summers at the beach club....

C230 Sport Coup

BTW- 279 for a rebuild is damn high. Look around a little more.
I think the place I checked was 190, and got a recommendation for
place that's less than that, but not yet checked it out.

BenZ190D

..., yes, I refrained from purchasing the $90 NEW starter motor from Amazon. who knows what's inside...?

The new brushes I assembled with saw and solder are alloy of copper and carbon. They should last the life of the car. Yes, after reading all the insights, I thoroughly greased all the gears. It sounds much smoother at start than before.

The newer models are damn difficult to work on. Comparing to this one, working on my good old 87-190D was a breeze. No wonder it runs all the way to 360k, and at my own negligence in checking the drive belt, which resulted in engine over heating on the highway. Nowadays, engineers don't care about ease of service...

C230 Sport Coup

So, is it working yet? What was the resolution? I hate open ended threads.
Not sure about easy of service on the M271 but my m111 coupey isn't too bad.
4 banger leaves lots of room to work, and after doing each thing once,
I can pretty much do anything on it pretty easily once you have all the correct tools.

Though pulling the starter has to be one of the more difficult things, since the top
bolt requires running extensions from the other end of the car, at least for me.
And then there's the little trick to get it out...posted a video on youtube on that, like 30 seconds long,
and now has over 40K hits from people who were going crazy trying to get the starter out, get the steering column out of the way..

BenZ190D

Yes, it starts now like a charm, sounds a lot smoother than before - likely due to the plethora of grease in the planetary gears. Through this project, I have a rich collection of 'carbon' (copper) brushes. next time, if there needs be, I'm well supplied.


You're right, removing the starter is not that bad if one knows it wasn't necessary to remove the complete steering coupler. it took me two hours before I gave it up, and then figured it wasn't necessary after all.


Putting it back is easy, except the bracket between the steering column and the coupler. Once pried open, it's virtually impossible to close. So I ended up wrap it around with a hose clamp saw open in the middle to double secure the bracket in place.


Many thanks for accompanying me through the project. it's so generous of you.


BTW, here's the thread at the end of which I posted my MAF sensor replacement project and reengineering of the way it was mounted to the airbox. https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...gineering.html