replacing starter brushes

[book-ends]

Hello,

My starter failed last week and I've been hitting it with my tire iron for a while, but now that's not helping me anymore. I'm almost 99% sure that the brushes have worn out.........

How hard is it to replace the brushes in a starter? I'm almost always broke so $35 for brushes sounds a lot better than $115 for a reman starter. Is it possible to replace the brushes while the starter is still installed?

I've done a lot of work on my car, but I've never dealt with either the starter or the alternator, so I like to ask questions before I start tinkering!!! From the FSM and the general location of the starter, it looks like I could pull the back cover off and replace the brushes without incident, but I'm guessing that it's easier to just pull the entire assembly out.....

Thanks a lot!

[book-ends]

bump

[stash420sx]

i think the starter is very easy to take out of the car. I took one out at a junk yard in like 10 minutes. im in the same boat as you, where are you finding new brushes?

[marshun]

its not worth going though the hassle to try and rebuild it yourself. just turn in your old one and get a new one.

[book-ends]

I disagree.......I get to learn how to rebuild a starter and I save almost $90! Stash, I'm giong to NAPA for the brushes. I've also found them to be the cheapest for starters.......

Marshun, chances are I'll fumble the rebuilding of the starter, return the brushes and just get a reman. However, it's worth a shot!

[NateDogg]

I put new brushes in about 30k mi ago and they're still firin. They are a little tricky to get in there with the springs, but a little patience and you can have them done in 20 minutes tops.

Good luck!

[stash420sx]

ive rebult starters in school before, itll only take a few minutes. Other than the fact that im extrmemly cheap, i am weary about using a reman part from napa, some guy proboly drunker and more stonned than I proboly rebuilt it. Check with nissan, for some reason i believe brand new ones are like 160. or maybe that was with my discount.

[book-ends]

A cheap part from Nissan? You must have been high!! I'll check into it though, the nearest Nissan dealership is about two miles down the road. They're sick of seeing me though because of a front seal debacle that I had a while back.............. lol

[book-ends]

Pow!

Pulled the starter, disassembled it and replaced the brushes this morning. Put everything back together, re-installed it in the car and it fired up on the first try!!

Got that all done and I still have time to write this before I go to work!!! I love working on my car.........

[gumby]

good thread i took my spare apart to clean the brushes and like a dip pulled the armature out so i had to go throught the hassle of re inserting it. glad to hear someone else was sucessful replacing them. definitely be interested in doing this in the future before the other croaks.

[capn]

i would take it to a rebuild shop because they can test everything in the starter for you (field, windings return the com, etc)

and the price is pretty cheap and the parts that they use (or the ones we use) are better then the OEM parts in new starters that are prone to fail we also fix certain faults in the starter that are from the factory and plus you get a warranty

[amolao]

The starter repair shop is a good option, I just replaced mine last week , got a new from Auto zone , 130 someting with core exchange. The old starter kept on going until it was hard to start in the mornings and really hot days, I would turn the key like 10 times and then start, the new one purrs like a kitten and I got a one year warranty with it....:pface