Starter inspection cover discovery.......

[gavinator68]

Hello All,

Been quite a week so far. ARGH!

Today I went to the boat and fired her right up, then she was not quite warmed and stalled out. No worries, just needed more warming is all. So I went to start her again and she made this horrible clatter like the starter was turning, but the teeth were not engaged or something.

When I looked around I noticed the inspection cover on the upper left corner of the flywheel cover and figured it was used to inspect the starter tooth engagement, so I went ahead and removed it. As I was loosening the bolts there was pressure against the cover so I went slow. Not slow enough to keep a screw from falling in the bilge, but slow non the less. What I found as you can all probably imagine, was a hand full of parts that came off the end of the starter shaft. The castle nut apparently lost its cotter pin or it was non existent from the PO, but it is what it is.

Now the question is.............what do I have in my hand and how do I reinstall it so I can give this another whirl?

I tried to move the shaft back and forth in the starter, nice and snug, no play. Ok cool. Tried to put the parts back on but the spring and sleeve parts would not go on far enough to allow me to put the castle nut back on. Only a few threads were exposed.

Is there an exploded view of this part of the starter floating around somewhere I could look at to get a better understanding?

Cheers,

David & Karen

[gavinator68]

Here are the parts that came off in my hand when I removed the inspection cover:

[67c&ccorv]

Is it an early model Prestolite starter?

If so they are easy to maintain - clean it up with mineral spirits...apply some good quality light grease - put her back together again with a proper stainless cotter pin (old one was probably steel and rusted off???)...and try spinning the motor again.

You should be able to find a parts diagram on the MMI manual.

[gavinator68]

I get the impression that would be the case, but having no drawing makes it more difficult to make certain I have all parts and pieces. Anybody?


Cheers

[gavinator68]

Looking around the net it seems that the inspection cover should be relatively flat on its face except for the first initial bump out around the edge. As you can see from the pics, mine has a small bulge where the castle nut had been slamming into the cover every time the engine was started. I hope to get this back in and see how good she sounds. She was running so well...............then this minor set back.

I should have stayed on the boat and spent more time trying to get it reassembled, but I could not find a pic of the assembly. Anyhoo, I will try again tomorrow.

I assume that since there is a castle nut and cotter pin, that the starter shaft will try to rotate when I go to tighten the castle nut. Is this correct and if so, what is the best way to keep it from spinning while getting the castle nut down far enough to insert the pin?

Cheers

[gavinator68]

And.............does anyone know what size the threads are on the small inspection cover bolts, as I did loose one to the bilge and that was not on the cleaning list until later. The screws are small, but they do not seem like machine screws.

???????

Cheers,

David & Karen

[hanleyclifford]

You have all the parts except the cotter pin. You will need to pull the starter to do the job. I run without the inspection cover (I hate surprises).

[Marty Levenson]

my cotter pin blew apart once: the starter made a terrible noise. Important to get as large a diameter a cotter pin as will fit when you rebuild. That way the momentum of the bendix won't tend to shear the pin over time.

[gavinator68]

Hello All,

Thank you for the insight. So this is a common problem on the trusty a4?

If it were not for the torrential down pour here in Northeast Ohio this weekend, I would be out getting this fixed today.

Always great to have the help of the forums!!!

Cheers,
David & Karen