1968 450 dozer starter/flywheel/voltage regulator

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ar13227
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1968 450 dozer starter/flywheel/voltage regulator

Post by ar13227 » Sun May 14, 2017 6:43 pm

I replaced the gauges in my 68 dozer a while back and the ammeter and oil pressure worked fine. The water and oil temp, not so fine. After consulting Stewart Warner I checked the voltage regulator and found a few melted wires leaving the regulator and a bad harness. I eliminated the harness and soldered new wires to the regulator. First thing I noticed was the battery held a charge overnight which was nice. Second thing I noticed was the starter sounded like it was chewing itself into pieces. The most God awful sound I have ever heard a machine make. Removed the solenoid and starter and found no apparent damage and the flywheel looked like I would expect a 48 year old flywheel to look. The starter was pretty dirty so I cleaned the armature, washed the stator and polished the contacts. Re-assembled and the same thing. Kind of sounds like the pinion gear is just "bouncing" off the flywheel. So here is my question; is the starter racket a product of a bad voltage regulator, or a bad solenoid? Are the two even related? Has anyone ever experienced anything similar? I'm leaning towards VR because at the same time this started happening the dozer started stalling after running for about a minute, which I attribute to loss of power to the starter safety switch, because I have fuel everywhere I should have fuel. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Adam

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Stan Disbrow
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Re: 1968 450 dozer starter/flywheel/voltage regulator

Post by Stan Disbrow » Sun May 14, 2017 7:45 pm

Hi,

The voltage regulator has nothing to do with the starter. All it does is raise and lower the alternator output to keep the battery at 13.8 or so volts when the engine is running.

However, if you have a worn starter, which had been being powered by a weak battery (due to a VR failure), and now you have proper battery power, the extra power would make the thing sound like you put lug nuts into a coffee grinder.

Take a hard look at the bushing on the tail end of the armature shaft first, then look at the front end.

Stan
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ar13227
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Re: 1968 450 dozer starter/flywheel/voltage regulator

Post by ar13227 » Tue May 16, 2017 11:48 am

Thanks for the reply Stan. I did recently replace the battery and when I had the starter apart checked the bushings. The front looked good the tail end did look a bit dirty and I admit I did not give it enough attention. I will address the tail end bushing and try again.

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Lavoy
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Re: 1968 450 dozer starter/flywheel/voltage regulator

Post by Lavoy » Tue May 16, 2017 1:13 pm

I would have the starter professonally rebuilt or find a rebuiilt. No fun replacing a ring gear if the starter eats it.
Lavoy
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ar13227
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Re: 1968 450 dozer starter/flywheel/voltage regulator

Post by ar13227 » Fri May 19, 2017 7:29 pm

I replaced the starter and VR and problem solved. Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated. Adam

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