ELECTRICAL REBUILDER’S ASSOCIATION—Technical Document SS201402A www.electricalrebuilders.org History Repeats Itself … Or Some Things Never Change ERA STAFF hen the ERA website was created, nearly ten years ago, an important part of the site was the Quality Control Forum. It is a place where members can post quality control issues that they have encountered. The purpose of the QC Forum is to warn other rebuilders in advance, of possible troubles with parts failing, so that they might avoid the resulting rebuilding problems. The QC Forum is also used to notify suppliers about problems with parts that they may be selling—parts that may not perform properly—so that those problems can be corrected. The most important purpose of the QC Forum is to improve the overall quality of what we rebuilders sell. From time to time, we will be publishing some of the posts that have been made on the QC Forum, not to lay blame or point fingers, but to make a contribution towards improving the quality and the reputation of the rebuilding industry. This post, we are sorry to say, was a case of history repeating itself. Figure 1 is a photo that was recently posted to the QC Forum. It shows a brush holder in a Lester# 5771 starter which was made in China. After a short period of time on the vehicle, the starter was returned with a melted plastic brush holder. One excuse might be that the the operator cranked on the engine too long, which may have caused this failure. But we have all seen original starters of this type with brush leads that have been discolored from intense overheating—without ever melting the brush holder. Note that the brush leads of the starter in this photo show no signs of overheating. Back in 2008, nearly six years ago, this same problem was pointed out by a different ERA member, as shown in the photos below. In this case, the member tested two brush holders with a hot soldering iron. Figure 2 shows the failed brush holder, bottom-side up, with a soldering iron pressed lightly against it for four seconds. Note that the soldering iron tip went all the way through the plastic in just four seconds. Figure 3 shows an original brush holder reclaimed from an original starter—turned the same way and with the same soldering iron. That photo was taken after three minutes of applying pressure from the same hot soldering iron—at the same temperature—with the same amount of pressure. A slight discolored dimple is all that resulted. The plastic did not melt! Whether you are a rebuilder or a supplier, if you are selling this type of starter, we urge you to test the brush holder with a soldering iron. Oviously, if it fails this simple test, then it will fail in the field. These failures will reflect negatively on all of us Figure 2—Aftermarket brush holder after four seconds of heat Figure 3—OE brush holder after three minutes of heat. An ERA Publication. ©2014, Electrical Rebuilder’s Association. All rights reserved. No portion of the guide may be reproduced Page 1 in any way, or stored in any electronic retrieval system without the prior written consent of the Electrical Rebuilder’s Association.