So I took apart my starter...

seancsnm

Newbie
Points
6
Location
New Mexico
Car
Oldsmobile 88
The car is a 1989 Oldsmobile Delta 88. After grinding the starter trying to start a running engine the other day, my starter would sometimes simply spin and not engage the flywheel when I tried to start my car. It always engaged and started on the second or third try. So I removed and disassembled mine to see if anything could be done to help it.

Lo and behold, the teeth were ground down pretty bad, and the solenoid arm that engages the gear was in pretty bad shape as well. But why exactly the starter sometimes wouldn't engage is still a bit of a mystery. With the shape the components are in, I would expect grinding, but not complete failure to engage. My guess is that the solenoid arm/gear teeth got just bad enough to not quite engage.


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So, any thoughts, comments, or suggestions to revive this starter, or is it pretty much shot? It spins up very nicely and starts strong when it does engage, so it'd be a shame to have to put down that much copper over 2 relatively small parts.
 
The wear is pretty bad. Don't try welding new metal on to the gears, it will just break really soon.

I think new parts is your only option really. Go to your local breakers yard and see if you can find scrap parts which you can use to recondition yours up to spec again.
 
Hi and welcome.

I know nothing about the internals of your starter motor so can't help you there.

The teeth don't look too bad (well, I have had starters with much worse teeth that still worked fine) and there is plenty of engagement surface left.

It is not clear in the photos, but there appears to be some sharp metal splinters on the worn edge of the teeth. If there are, these could prevent the teeth engaging.

I suggest that you smooth out the ends of the teeth to remove this possibility.
 
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Yea, I'd guessed it's probably beyond repair (at least, without completely replacing parts). Don't know about in the UK, but a starter at the scrap yard is about $30, while a refurbished one is closer to $50. Getting new parts for repair would cost almost that amount. I was possibly betting on grinding the gears away to re-taper the ends, though I don't know if that'd actually get me anywhere.

It's not a big deal. I was mainly wanting to get an idea of how bad the wear actually is, and if it's likely that the visible wear caused the problem I'd been having. I'm pretty new to working on cars, so I thought I'd get some opinions from experienced guys.

Git, if I get some time I may try to do what you suggested. The edges are pretty blunt, but my guess is that the main problem is due to something preventing the solenoid from fully extending the drive gear rather than wear on the teeth themselves.
 
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