My
Perkins 4.236 starts up in the first rotation or few (1/2 sec or less) but the other day the solenoid just clicked.
Thinking like most would I thought that the start
battery was weak/not-charged and the like.
Checking the voltage on the start
battery during a key turn shows the battery voltage drops to 6 volts. This kinda bummed me out as that the battery is a 1 year old
AGM that has been on a dedicated truecharge2 10 amp
charger and should have been fully charged.
Time to put into action plan B which calls for hooking the starter up to the house bank. The house bank is a 700 AH
LiFePO4 bank....
Turning the key and the
engine turns over and starts. However, the lights and
instruments running off the house bank took a significant voltage drop. The lights went out (LED lights!) and the chart plotter rebooted (kinda to be expected).
Looking at the starter I could see some puffs of smoke coming from inside the started and going out where the wire goes from the solenoid to the inside of the starter. Looked like something burnt inside the starter.
With that in mind I hooked the starter battery up to the
inverter and powered a space
heater off it. The start battery powered the
heater without problems. 150 amps for 5 minutes (no need to test longer it was fine).
I have to conclude that the started is bad - hopefully it was not burnt and that was just the
brushes "burning".
This leaves me with 2 options.
The starter is a delco remy 1107539 (MT20 I think) that I could have the local shop
rebuild. PMX is a great shop and would do a good job.
Option 2 is to source a replacement starter. There are a bunch that appear to be able to
work. All appear to have a reduction
gear. ASE Supply Outlet is in town and looks to have one (based on the MT28 I think) that should fit.
So it the questions are what replacement starters have you used on your 4.236? Did you have a MT20
rebuild and how did that
work out?
Thanks!