Cleaning starter motor

The starter motor on my 2.5td was not starting so i've taken it off to clean it. I have put a battery across it and the solenoid is cuting in and out and the motor is turning over, is there anything i can do to make sure it works ok when i put it back in. Like grease the drive gear or wet and dry the solenoid.

Be careful about applying any kind of grease or oil to the starter motor. The dust from the clutch gets stuck to it, and it very quickly seizes up again.

If you use brasso on all the internal solenoid contacts until they are nice and shiny, if they are not already, and then clean them with some white spirit to remove any brasso residue.
Also just ensure the slidy bits of the gear or all clean, WD40 is fairly good as long as you wipe most of it off, because it frees stuff up but also then evaporates. That or some kind of dry teflon based lube, i know halfords make some for bikes.

Thats why i asked the question. I didn't want to put it back in and take it out again in 2 weeks time. Thanks for that

dint fergit that just because its spins on a bench dunt mean it has enought ooomph to turn yer injun over.
you can use a vice and broom handle to make a crude tester fer it. mount starter in vice , then place broom handle under the business end of starter with the end of the broom handle on yer bench. now get someone to energise the starter while you lever up on the starter teef.
you can apply a fair bit of force to it this way and it wont damage the teef unless yer got a reet hardwood handle.