You can use a suitably pointed piece of rebar to solder those, heat it with a propane torch. What you need is to store some heat in a piece of steel. Like an old plumber's soldering iron. Or... just take it to a shop, they have the tools. Probably only charge you a few bucks. You may also want to have them cut your armature .020 or so, to make sure it doesn't grind on the field coils. Makes a big difference.

 

Since you're this far into the starter, why not check bushing for wear on the shaft. A shop should have the bushings and not charge much to install.

 

I'm going to try to do this myself... at least for now. That's part of the fun of having this truck.

The starter worked perfectly before I touched it. I'm hoping I can make it work perfectly again. I'm usually pretty good at fixing things.

If not, I'll give in and take it to a shop...

 

Are you sure your brushes are worn enough to need replacing? The starter brushes last a very long time. They are much more durable than generator brushes. Can you post a picture of them?

 

They are in a post a page back. They're not too bad...

 

Wow, somehow I missed the second half of page 57.

I would use the starter brushes as they are. If you are looking for a reason to purchase a heavy duty soldering iron though...

 

Well, the brushes really aren't worn out, but I thought I'd replace them since I had to replace the rusted springs. That was before I discovered that two of them are easily replaced, and two of them are a little more difficult.

I'm gonna give this a week before I decide what to do. I got the new brushes and springs, so I'm at least going to replace the springs (I broke one of the originals).

I'm out of town again this week, so by next weekend, I'll have figured out what I want to do with the brushes.

Thanks for all the input guys.

 

I got my new 300 watt soldering gun this week. I decided not to go with the $250 American Beauty iron, and since I thought I might use it again, I bought a Weller 650 gun off Amazon for $64 with free shipping instead of fashioning an iron out of rebar (which I don't have) and using a torch to heat it. I do appreciate all the suggestions, but this gun worked great. I had the two brushes installed in about 10 minutes.



I awoke this morning thinking about the easiest way to reassemble the starter. I had already tried several ways, but I was doing it all wrong. I realized this morning that the springs have to be installed first, and before the end piece is in place. That makes installing them just plain easy. My quandry was how to move them out of the way to install the brushes. It came to me this morning...

So I moved the new brushes outside the side holes in the starter, put the end on with the springs attached, and very simply and easily pulled the springs back with a spring hook... pushed the brushes into their slots, and released the spring gently to hold the brushes in place. I had it back together in 5 minutes. Sometimes I just over-think things.

BEFORE



AFTER




Now I just need to get it installed, put some oil in the truck and see if it'll start. You can be sure I'll let you know, one way or the other.

If that works, I'll be draining the tranny to see if I can discover what's intermittently locking up.

 

I see I never mentioned in this thread that I put the oil pan back on. That was in the other thread I started concerning gaskets and seals.

So the first success... I got the oil pan back on, filled the truck with 5 quarts of 20W-50 oil and three good things happened. But more on that in a minute...

Here's the pan before and after. I didn't take the camera with me under the truck.




And of course you all read about the starter, so I won't post more pics of that, but I did install it today. That's success #2, because the truck started right up like it usually does. That was the first good thing. The second was the 20W-50 gives me higher oil pressure than I've ever had. The stock gauge shows about 20 lbs more at idle. And the 3rd good thing is I don't see any oil leaking... yet.

And now for the not so much success. Well, I guess it's a good thing in a way.

Some of you know I corrected the braking problem I had by installing a new master cylinder. My brakes would actually lock up occasionally at a stop. But just before I parked Betsy for the last time a few weeks ago, something stopped the truck like I was running over a brick as I was pulling back into the garage. This was in 1st gear, and it was a sudden stop. I backed down the driveway and idled back into the garage in 1st again... but she stopped in about the same spot, the same way. I backed out into the street and tried again. Nothing happened. But I started working on the oil pan and starter right after that, so I have not driven her since.

Today I drained the new gear oil out of the transmission. It was pretty coming out, like it only had a hundred miles on it. Because it did.

I pulled the inspection plate off the side and was surprised to find a very thick layer of sludge which obviously hadn't mixed with the new oil. I was scooping the sludge over to the drain hole when I found... a piece of metal.

I worked on getting the sludge out (along with quite a bit of metal fragments) for over an hour. I sprayed the insides of the tranny with Gunk to help break the sludge loose. It's still draining.

Now I have to decide if this tranny will work, since it only has ever had that one problem, and I have removed the piece that I believe caused it to lock. But then, where did it come from?

 

What kind of piece of metal, like a gear tooth? Pictures?

 

If you can't see it from the side, it is probably best to pull the top plate and figure out which gear missed its dental check-ups. Unless it's bearing bits. Or brass - then it's a synchro. Is that a T98 or crash box? Give us some pictures of the bits and we'll take a swag as to what they came from.
Lift the rear and hand turn it while looking for the chip source(s).

 

Here's a pic of the shards. The Q-Tip is there for size comparison. These were the largest I found, but there were plenty of granular bits in there.

 

You're looking in the PTO port, right? So I don't think you can see Rev gear and the Rev Idler? Those take a real beating, and that's where the damage was on mine. Those are ground up bits of tooth fragments, I'm sure. Like Joe said, pull the top cover and really take a good look.

I'd say the good new would be you haven't reported hearing a noise like a gear completely missing a tooth. So maybe you have to replace a gear or two, there are plenty of donors and brand new parts around for those trannies.EZ-peezy to renew, too.

The tooth below made absolutely no noise.

 

I'm guessing that a '51 F4 has a crash box. However, if it's a T98, there was a change to T98-A right around '55-56. The T98-A is the one that modern rebuild parts are readily available for. The T98 might take a bit of digging. The gears changed pitch direction between the two models. That's why I ask what tranny you have. Well, that and I'm too lazy to re-read your posts. Albatross is a '55 F500 and it has a T98. Fortunately, there are relatively "lots" of donors around.

OK, advanced search is your friend. I see that you do have a crash box. So, in the words of Roseanna Bananadanna, "never mind.."

 

I'm so confused. I think what you're saying is the T98 is the 4 Speed Synchronized A8T 7001-A.

I think I have a T9 transmission A8T 7001-B, which is the 4 Speed Spur Gear referred to as the crash box.

As far as I can tell from the parts catalogs, my transmission is covered in the Illustrations on pages 195 and 217, and Text on pages 329 and 342-343. I actually wish the Illustrations catalog had a better picture of the T9 other than that on page 195.

Hey NumberDummy... Bill, help me if I'm wrong on this. I'm probably going to be needing some parts...