Volvo EC15 Starter removal

[Muz]

Any banana spanners Muz

No ... I don't ... Never found a need for them but you know what ? That might be the very too to assist here

[Mattir]

Hello fellow knuckle skinning fans

We recently had an EC 15 that had a starter motor that intermittantly wasn't releasing when the engine was started, and continued to 'mesh' with the crown ring on the fly wheel when the engine was running.

If this was allowed to continue, the motor would burn out, and possibly catch fire leading to an expensive (or catastrophic) repair. The suspected cause was the starter motor relay, but both the ignition switch has to be checked for ingress of water and general failure (if its a canopy machine especially) and the starter removed and inspected for problems with the pull hold circuit and throw out mechanism.

Well .. starter removal is almost an engine out job on this machine, as one of its major failings is that there is no hatch through from the cab to the engine, to remove it and its on the fire wall side.

However there are a few things you can do to make your life easier .. but put aside 2 to 3 hours to get the damn thing out.

First you need to remove all the air filter and fuel filter gubbins .. disconnect all the hoses and remove the plate with 3 bolts ontop of the fuel tank and all the filters will come away.. watch though .. you need to disconnect the air filter sensor connectors and the 12V power outlet socket will still be attached, dont bother with its fiddly 7mm connectors, just undo the 13mm nut on its mount bracket and it slips off the plate

Then disconnect the fuel send line, the return line, and the breather line and whip out the fuel tank

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1018[/ATTACH]

Underneath it .. as shown above ..disconnect the high pressure pump output line as there is no slack on it what so ever and will not allow you to pull the engine forward

I have photos of my work, but I only thought about posting it after I had a lot of stuff removed

Anyway the next thing is to drop off the back ballast at its four bolt fixings and then... use the little free movement on the engine tray, and slide the engine out to give you more room round the back, I've posted elsewhere about doing this, but basically the engine sits in a tray that bolts to the digger chassis in 3 places .... one 18mm bolt on the right under the RAD and 2 on the left as you stand looking at it from the back, the front one is visible but the second one isnt, its recessed under the engine, but theres a hole in the digger floor pan to let you get to it.

Once you have them removed the whole tray will slide out 2 inches .. not a lot .. but its vital to let you get access to the starter .. and the real bad guy in this job .. the exhaust

First you need to remove the down pipe from the exhaust manifold

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1019[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]1020[/ATTACH]


Both these pics have the pipe removed (and the starter cos I took this shot at the end of the job) but you cannot get to the starter lower bolt without taking this pipe off or the manifold sooooooo.. then you have to drop the manifold box off (after undoing the starter harness)

and its a pig ...... it has two mounting bolts on the top and one you need to get from below

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1021[/ATTACH]

the pic above shows the two bolts on the top mount attached to the engine mount and where they would mate up, with the bolts removed the box is dropped down

but you need to do the underside one too from below AND the one on the tail pipe attached to the fly wheel housing to allow it to drop completely .. YOU WILL NOT GET ACCESS TO THE BOTTOM STARTER MOTOR BOLT WITHOUT DOING THIS !!

And to make matters worse the Cunning @*%^$???? at Volvo have put a 15mm nut on a 17mm bolt which you have to work with blind to get these three bolts out, which will then drop the box

After all of this you will get access to the bottom starter motor 12mm bolt and be able to remove it, and you will have your prize

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1022[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]1023[/ATTACH]

To finish this story .. the starter was working perfectly after checking !! .. welcome to plant repairs everyone

Thanks Muz again for posting valuable info. What I learned is that even though starter removal is great fun and a very good and long term excuse to escape urgent vacuuming requested by the lady, the starter might not be first suspect. The contrl circuitry should be investigated first.

tnx

[Muz]

Thanks Muz again for posting valuable info. What I learned is that even though starter removal is great fun and a very good and long term excuse to escape urgent vacuuming requested by the lady, the starter might not be first suspect. The contrl circuitry should be investigated first.

tnx

Indeed ... and what did you deduce ? a faulty key switch perhaps ?

[Mattir]

Indeed ... and what did you deduce ? a faulty key switch perhaps ?

Honestly... dont have clue yet

[Muz]

Honestly... dont have clue yet

So you've got the same issue of a starter motor staying engaged sometimes whilst the engine is running ? or were you just suggesting I check the wiring now that I know the starter is fine ?

[Mattir]

So you've got the same issue of a starter motor staying engaged sometimes whilst the engine is running ? or were you just suggesting I check the wiring now that I know the starter is fine ?

I might sound a bit confusing, but by posting I just wanted to thank you for posting a huge pile of information that might prove useful. My -15 is doing fine, but you never know when a malfunction hits. Sorry.

the engagement sound like a mechanical issue and you did the right thing by checking the starter.

[Muz]

Yeah yeah its no problem fella, you really cant rely on the starter being good, so it has to come out to be checked, but, at least thats the worst bit of the job over apart from the rebuild .. ill disassemble the starter clean and lubricate it anyway

[G-AJRC]

Same Problem

I had exactly the same problem with my EC15b. The starter would intermittently continue to mesh after the machine had been started. I wasn't always obvious that this was the case and was only evident because of the strong smell of electrical burning and sometimes smoke coming from the back of the engine!!! I wasn't actually convinced that the problem was a mechanical one which was holding the starter in, but more of that later.

Anyway, after reading many accounts of how to replace the starter, most of which suggested that lots of gubbins had to be removed from around the engine, and the engine pulled back on it's tray. Not really wanting to go down this route I decided to explore an easier option. The steps that I took were as follows:

1. Remove the boot (engine compartment cover/door assembly) from the digger by removing two bolts located behind the seat and two Allen screws at each side of the rear of the boot. You may have remove the two lower bolts of the rear window and swing the window out a little to lift the boot off. Make sure that you remove pipe from the air filter box or you will cut it in half when you lift the boot off! Once you have do this you will have better access to the engine.

2. Disconnect the battery.

3. Remove the two electrical connections to the alternator. One is a plug that can be simply pulled out and the other is a nut. The the top adjuster nut of the alternator can then be removed, the fan belt slipped off and the alternator pushed back to gain access to the lower fixing nut and bolt on the alternator. Undo the nut and tap the long bolt through to enable the alternator to be removed. The alternator can easily be lifted out of the engine compartment. Make sure that you don't loose the spacer that is at one end of the alternator. This then gives you easy access to the top two bolts of the exhaust which needs to be removed. Follow steps that Muz posted to remove the exhaust. But as I found later the starter can with a bit of gingery pokery be actually removed without removing the exhaust.

4. Once you have the exhaust off, remove the wires from the starter motor. Then from under the machine, undo the bottom starter fixing bolt. Then from the top of the engine you can just get a a socket onto the top bolt because of the space made by the removal of the alternator. The starter can then be lifted out through that space. The new starter can be refitted the same way. I got the starter lined up and put in the top bolt first, then went underneath and fitted the bottom bolt. It is easier to re-connect the starter wires at this point.

5. Reassemble the exhaust.

6. Re-fitt the alternator. It was an absolute pig to try and line up the spacer, bolt and alternator so I came up with a cunning plan. I stuck the spacer to the alternator with Araldite so the whole thing went in already landed up. Worked a treat! Slip the fan belt back on and replace the top adjuster nut and electrical connections.

7. Re-connect the battery and give everything a good test before replacing the boot.


Other Info

As I stated at the beginning of the post I wasn't convinced that the problem of the starter meshing was mechanical. I thought at one point that i could be an electrical problem that was causing the starter solenoid to stay in and hence hold the starter in. So I have come up with another cunning plan. When I refitted the starter I added a couple of extra wires, one to the starter solenoid coil and one to the starter motor terminal. These are connected to a little box in the cab with 12 volt led's which light when the starter solenoid is electrically activated and earn the starter is engaged. In future if the starter does ever stay engaged I will know for certain if it is an electrical problem or a mechanical problem.

When i came to refit the starter I actually found that with a bit of patience and by feel only it was just possible to get a socket onto the bottom bolt of the starter. So if I have this problem again I think I would try a little harder and perhaps get the bottom starter bolt out without taking the exhaust system to bits.

I hope the above helps!

Al

[Muz]

When I refitted the starter I added a couple of extra wires, one to the starter solenoid coil and one to the starter motor terminal. These are connected to a little box in the cab with 12 volt led's which light when the starter solenoid is electrically activated and when the starter is engaged. In future if the starter does ever stay engaged I will know for certain if it is an electrical problem or a mechanical problem.

Thats a handy tip .. because its damned hard to tell if its stuck in sometimes once its started doing it ... you'd only need the one on the solenoid though, as its the faulty part .. the other feed to the starter is permanantly 12V live anyway

[Mattir]

Thats a handy tip .. because its damned hard to tell if its stuck in sometimes once its started doing it ... you'd only need the one on the solenoid though, as its the faulty part .. the other feed to the starter is permanantly 12V live anyway

Yes indeed. One could install similar ”alarms” to other places of concern. The only problem with this is that it will develop into a jungle of bells, whistles and lamps in the cabin.