How to Repair a Starter Motor

The starter is one of the most highly used parts on a vehicle. The starter is an electric motor that essentially is the heart of your car. It performs the first action that sets every other action in your car in motion. The starter is a heavy current carrying device, and the motor endures a lot of strain. It is fairly common to see flywheel teeth fly off, and windings come loose as the starter ages. In a few steps, you can get started with repairing your broken starter. 

Using the adjustable wrench, remove the starter from your car. Make sure the car is off and not in operation. Be careful not to damage the starter as you remove it from its primary stabilization bolt.

Using the adjustable wrench, remove the bolts holding the starter casing together. This should reveal the starter flywheel and windings inside the starter. A starter is an electric motor so several key parts are critical to its operation. An electric motor is a collection of copper windings surrounded by magnets.

Inspect the flywheel. If a large number of teeth are missing, it will appear that the starter's motor is not working. If the flywheel is missing a large number of teeth, replace the flywheel. If it isn't missing teeth, go to Step 4.

Inspect the flywheel shaft and windings. Turn the shaft manually to make sure that nothing is blocking the starter motor's torque. If the windings are broken, the required magnetic field isn't going to work properly. New windings are necessary. Are the magnets aligned and at the proper spacial orientation? If they are damaged, you need to reposition or replace them.

Close the inspection by making a list of findings and working through the problems. You can go to a junkyard and find any replacement parts you may need.