No wonder me starter was playing up..

Occasionally slow crank, then ok next day, no crank at all today so off it came.

You're using the word 'starter' rather loosely.

Luckily I had a non working spare, which when stripped down only had sticky brushes and it was good again after a clean up.
I'll see if I can source a new brush plate complete for the rusty one.

Used to ne a weekly event for me when I used to off road the 90 a lot, deep water buggers everything.
Amazingly the cheapie britpart one took to the stripping/cleaning better than the bosch unit which finally died, britpart one is still on the car a decade later.

lynall said:

Used to ne a weekly event for me when I used to off road the 90 a lot, deep water buggers everything.
Amazingly the cheapie britpart one took to the stripping/cleaning better than the bosch unit which finally died, britpart one is still on the car a decade later.

Click to expand...

Both mine are valeos which seem well made. The one in the pic has a reduction gear set up, the one I've cleaned up and is now on the car is direct drive. Doesn't wang it over as fast but she's a cracking starter(200tdi) anyway and doesn't need a lot. My only worry is how to reattach the 2 brush leads that go to the field windings, if that's the correct terminology, they appear to be spot welded on. The other 2 brushes are fitted to the brush plate so are pre fitted on a new plate I guess. Two of the brush springs snapped through rust so a new plate is needed which takes care of 2 of the 4 brushes and the brush spring issues so I might reuse the other two brushes attached to the windings and just clean them up.

Mid Ulster Rotating Electrics. Parts for older starter's, dynamo's alternators.

Found another valeo starter in me stash, so that's 3 of the buggers I've got now. That was dead too, so I stripped it down hoping to find sticky brushes again or at the least a good brush plate to repair the one in the pic above.
That's a firm NO ...