Question for you fellas.. I have a sullivan High Torque electric starter that i connect to my standard 12v 7A field battery.. It has always turned my saito 125 and tower .75 engines over pretty easily.. Last season at the end of the season, it was not turning the motors over well at all.. I suspected that my field bat had started to go, so I got a new one yesterday. Charged it up and even on a brand new battery, I am having the same issue.. I've only had the electric starter for about 3 years.. Is there something that would cause this thing to start losing torque? It seems like a sullivan starter should last for longer than 3 years..

Appreciate any suggestions!

GD

I had one last about 25 years. So, there must be something wrong with it. There might be some debris in between the contacts on the squeeze trigger.

Sounds like you either have a bad connection somewhere (if you are using a panel) or the brushes are going bad. Check all the connections on your power panel make sure none of them have been overheated. You will notice a slight scorching of the wire shielding next to the solder or worse the entire shield is a bit malformed from heat.If this is the case replace the wire at the bad connection then try your starter.Also a great idea to check out the switch contacts on the starter.

Another thing to check, take the caps of of both ends of the starter, if it has drawn moisture it could just need a simple cleaning. Use a fine grit sand paper to shine the armature.
the high torque starter uses gear reduction to up the power at the output shaft, could just need greased up. If the grease has dried up some it will be a graphite loaded glue.

You can easily replace the brushes in these starters go to your local auto parts store and buy a set of alternator brushes for an 85 ford pickup with a 302 they are like 7 dollars. File them to easily fit within the guides solder the wires in place. The brushes are spring loaded to constantly touch the armature of the starter.So anytime your spinning it, it is wearing graphite with metal. You may get lucky and take your starter to a motorcycle shop and they can order the brushes to fit.

I used to get my brushes from my local hardware store. You can also buy a can of electrical cleaner and spray the stuff inside the starter to clean it. It's usually the brushes or just dirt.

After checking the grip clamps or banana plugs for a good connection, check the starter on your vehicle's battery to see if it's stronger... if so, it's your field battery thats gone weak.

Thanks for the suggestions.. I connected the starter directly to my field batt tonight, bypassing the power panel in the box, and had the same problem.. So I'll rule out the power panel for now.. Going to let the new batt charge over night (charged on my hyperion duo yesterday) and try again.. If that doesn't do it, I'll look into changing the brushes.. (I've never done that before, so it should be interesting!)

If you get into taking it apart, I've been there and done that.

Lift the field (outer casing) off the armature - The field is a permanent Magnet so it will try to bring the armature with it off the back plate.

There are often some little thrust washers between the armature and the end bearing so don't loose them

The problem is trying to get the brushes held out while putting everything together

The solution is to just install the armature onto the backplate/brushes so you can get to everything.

Then slide the field down over the armature. WARNING, that permanent magnet will suck the armature up off the brushes so you must hold the armature down while you insert the field down over the armature. The hard part is done with no strings attached to the brushes.

You can handle the rest of it.

First thing I would check is where the wires come out of the end of the starter. These take a beating right where the hard plastic case ends. I had to pull mine apart and cut off the end of the wires and resolder. There were only a few strands left in tact.

David

It could be that your new field battery is defective also. I've seen bad new batteries before. Try connecting to your car battery since you should know that is good especially if the engine/alternator is running.

I found this diagram of a small motorcycle starter, while a bit larger and I am sure different, almost all of these starters are very close to what you see here.

Should give you an idea and get you within the ball park anyway. GOOD LUCK

I don't remember but two brushes

they have some parts on the bottom of this page

http://www.sullivanproducts.com/StartersMainFrame.htm

The switch contacts are similar to a set of breaker points in a distributor. I found mine "pitted" badly once, and burnished them into shape. Might be an area to take a look at?

Hi,
Shorten the Starter wires and get the Battery as close to the Starter as you can. My Starter is mounted directly on the Battery and nylon Ty-Wraps hold it secure.

Cut the wire leads about 6 inches from the starter and attach a good size Alligator clip to each starter wire. Connect each alligator clip directly to your 12V, 7aHr fully charged battery. The short wires will reduce the resistance and give much more power to the starter.

Ken AMA 1528

The starter will have noticeably more power when using a 85 amp hr truck battery than it will with a 7 amp gel cell

Hook that sucker up to one a these should do the trick.

Sorry couldn't resist (1000 cold cranking amp battery for heavy equipment)

That will work

It is possible that you have some shorted windings in the armature (not uncommon) in this case you will need to replace it

I believe the Sullys are motors from electric windows from cars.

Whatever they are, the Sullivans are made a lot better than the Great Planes/Hobbico starters. But they cost more too.

I've had a Great Planes Regular starter for more than 10 yrs and it has always served me faithfully with never any trouble. It just doesn't have the power needed for the big engines.

I like my Sullivans; one I got in 1981 for Christmas still works fine but the plastic is cracking. I have another and a Hobbico. The Sullivans are the better of the two. Both need good connections and good batteries to work. Banana plugs have always given me just enough problem to make bigger engines harder to start than through a straight connection.