I painted the block today and added one more coat the underside of the pan just for good measure. And a whole bunch of little pieces got some paint too.
That will all have to sit for a couple of days so it seemed like the time to disassemble the starter/generator. I was pleasantly surprised to find everything in very good shape. I suspect it was completely rebuild shortly before I got it because there was very little wear on the the commutators, rear bushing was still good and the grease in the front bearing was reasonably clean. Lots of black dust in the windings, but the brushes have lots of life left in them.
Basically I just spun the armature up and gave the bushing end a couple seconds with crocus cloth and then some fine emery on the commutator to check for tracks, then used the back of a box cutter blade to clean the grooves. Cleaned the bearing and repacked. I filled the bushing with motor oil and let the wick soak up all it wanted so I wouldn't have try to get the lub plug out of the end cap.
Its back together and all that's left on it is to decide what color to paint it. Red to match the block or gloss black for contrast?
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