Starter Alignment

[SimonJ 2]

I gave up trying to solve my starter wiring (or so I thought) problem and left it in with a local garage. They got it going by getting a dowel for the starter/bellhousing interface (one of the three starter bolts goes through it) and while the car now starts it makes a terrible squealing sound when starting and, even more alarmingly, sparks come out from around the flywheel/starter area (can't picture it now, just called in to see the guy on the way home from work).

 

When the starter is taken off neither the ring gear or the spline from the starter show any evidence of hitting off each other.

 

Has anyone else any experience of this? The car used to make the squealing sound years ago but it gradually disappeared. Are there any more dowels I could be missing, either between the starter and bellhousing or block and bellhousing?

 

The other strange thing is that he says the other two starters I left up with him (one fat, one thin) don't mesh with the flywheel at all but I thought all XU starters fitted all XU engines and I could swear I've used one of them before.

 

Thanks in advance. First event in 5 weeks and getting a bit jumpy!

[jackherer 543]

There are dowels between the block and gearbox but another possibility is the bolts holding the gearbox to the engine have come loose allowing the whole assembly to sag apart which is a common problem.

[Ozymandis 97]

I have seen this exact same issue on a customers 205 diesel, nasty noise and sparks.

 

Caused by a brand new starter motor,it was a no name Chinese copy of a Bosch starter motor,somethings not quite right with the pinion to ring gear interface dimensioning.

Cured by throwing it in the scrap and fitting a genuine Bosch.

 

I did a post mortem on it, identical construction inside but all a bit cheese pared,poor screws etc

[Jon_Bmw 13]

Hi,

 

Your issue sounds slightly different to mine, but of a similar nature.

 

See this post:

 

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=148522&do=findComment&comment=1391250

 

This has the part number of a non compatible starter motor with an mi16 engine and flywheel combo.

 

I think it may have suffered a similar issue to Ozymandis' starter motor. Visually I couldn't tell a difference between the pinions and I am pretty sure I took measurements to make sure the pinions came out the same amount.

 

Jon

[toolie72 67 1 Cars]

I've had fat body and thin on my car over the years so they are interchangeable. I think I'd take starter off car,stick jump leads on it, try it on a battery, if starter sparks then at least you know rest is ok

I might be wrong but I seem to remember that hollow dowel goes on different bolt depending on starter type-somebody here will know better than my sieve like memory

Ps fat body type waste of blooming time-unless you have a hammer and bar to tap it (in petrol station at front of queue on the busiest day of the year)

[Ozymandis 97]

Fat/thin, short/long Valeo/Bosch/Mitsubishi 9/10/11 teeth,all same doweling all fit none`s particularly better or worse in the long term,unless every gramme is an issue to you,they are just different.

 

jon-bmw, Lucas are just a brand name now put on to Chinese s*ite, probably would work with a genuine non Chinese one.

 

toolie, the sparks are from the pinion ringear interface the s*ite motors work fine on the bench.

Some even spark when the engines running, i presume the gears are rubbing or catching. proper "fireworks show".

My Ford buddy has had similar with "copy" motors as well.

 

They are brand new ,shipped half way around the planet and are half the price of a motor reconditioned in Britain.

Cheap s*it motors.

 

I just bought an alternator for a mid 80`s 280Csi Merc , no name Chinese straight rip off copy of a Bosch alternator, side by side you can see very minor differences, the customer was selling so he wanted cheap.

Half the price my local guy can recondition one for.

[SimonJ 2]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Got a new (to me) OE starter at the weekend and everything back to normal. Whew!