My car is a daily driver, with over 20,000 miles in the past year, since
installing the gear reduction starter.with no problem; The engagement gear
had to be reversed to match up with the original.
Sounds like you just got a bad one, which could have happened with any
starter, reduction or original.
cheers
al salvatore
waiting on new water pump
76tr6 daily
Hot & humid sunny Florida
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael D. Porter" <mporter@zianet.com>
To: "Alan" <asalvato@tampabay.rr.com>
Cc: <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 12:55 AM
Subject: Re: gear-reduction starter. Was: Starter Question
> Alan wrote:
> >
> > > If you need a new starter, I'd recommend a gear reduction starter, I
've
> > had
> > > one for over a year now.
> > > TRF has them on sale for 169.00 . A fair piece of change less than
I
> > paid
> > > back then.
> > > rebuilt originals are available through most suppliers.
> > > al salvatore
> > > 76TR6 dailey
>
> I'm not out to diss any of the suppliers selling gear reduction starters
> for Triumphs, but I have to relate my experience with one (supplier not
> mentioned--they're all coming from the same manufacturer, anyway, I
> think).
>
> The starter location on the GT6 is way down low on the right. Where I
> live, rain is infrequent, but when it rains, it's sudden and torrential,
> and the city here thinks storm drains are a myth perpetuated by people
> who live in big cities. Lots of local and temporary flooding. The stock
> starter is rather porous, and I've had lots of starter problems related
> to having to run in deep water. I decided that a gear reduction starter
> would be a good choice, since the mounting flange could be clocked so
> that the motor would be higher than the stock unit.
>
> Within a couple of weeks of installing the gear-reduction unit, it
> started having engagement problems. Not severe, and when it wound up and
> didn't engage, I could let it wind down until it was almost stopped, hit
> the start again and it would engage. No big deal.
>
> This got a bit worse over the year it was installed, but was still
> manageable. Thursday before last, it left me dead in front of our local
> Mexican grocery. Would spin up, but simply would not engage, no way, no
> how. I finally got a push to start, and put it in the driveway. Took off
> the starter Saturday before last and took it apart.
>
> Discovered that it wasn't a bendix-related problem as I suspected. These
> units have a plunger on the end of the solenoid shuttle which positively
> locates the pinion gear in the flywheel before engagement. The problem
> is in the gear train. The motor gear (about eight-ten teeth) engages an
> intermediate gear of about eighteen teeth, which then engages the bendix
> shaft driven gear, which has about forty teeth. The only connection to
> the bendix drive shaft is the driven gear, through a one-way roller
> clutch inside the driven gear. This clutch provides over-run protection
> for the pinion, but it's also the only connection between the starter
> and the bendix.
>
> Upon disassembly, I discovered that all of the rollers were seized in
> the body of the driven gear. They are made to work by inertia--they each
> sit in a ramped recess in the inner part of the gear, with a return
> spring pushing on each roller to return them to their original
> position--and this means they have to be free to work. The driven gear
> spins up, the rollers, through inertia, lag behind the rotation of the
> gear and slide up their ramps, binding the shaft and the gear and, in
> turn, turning the starter pinion.
>
> Pretty simple--if the rollers slide. The problem with this starter is
> that the lubricant used isn't up to the purpose, and the assembly
> technique isn't the best, so there are a couple of problems which relate
> to binding rollers. The first is the design: there are two more or less
> square section bronze bushings on either side of the driven gear, on
> which the gear rides when it is free-wheeling. Inboard of these are the
> two halves of the cage containing the rollers. The land for the bushings
> is slightly deeper than the thickness of the bushings themselves, and if
> the bushings are driven full home (as they would be during manufacture)
> they push in slightly on the cages, pinching the rollers just a bit.
> And, since the grease used seems to trap wear particles, those two
> conditions cause the rollers to seize, and therefore not do what they
> are intended to do.
>
> For anyone considering gear-reduction starters, therefore, I have some
> advice, based on recent experience. To avoid this aggravation of lack of
> engagement, I would suggest the following: upon buying a new starter,
> before installation, disassemble the gear train, pull the driven gear
> and back bearing off (there's not room to get even a small puller behind
> the back bearing, so use the driven gear to pull off the back bearing).
> Thoroughly clean out the existing lubricant from the inside of the
> driven gear and repack with a good synthetic (I used Mobil 1 Synthetic
> Universal Grease).
>
> Then, with a long flat punch and hammer, very lightly move the forward
> and rear bronze bushings in their lands so that the face of each is
> flush with the outside of the flange retaining them, taking care not to
> mess up the roller cage in the process. This gives enough clearance for
> cages and rollers to work properly and to ensure that grease gets all
> round the rollers, including all of their ends.
>
> I also noticed that both of the bendix shaft bearings were unsealed, and
> the one near the pinion gear seemed to be packed with lithium grease,
> most of which had leaked out, as it was dry and rough, so I cleaned
> those, as well, and packed them with synthetic grease, then reassembled
> the gear train.
>
> The result is a starter which works as intended, every time. I've had no
> trouble with it at all since these changes.
>
> Certainly, some of you with this same starter, operating in cooler
> climes and not using your car and starter as frequently as I do (mine is
> a daily driver, doing runs to work, errands, etc.) won't see this
> problem immediately, but from private email in the last week, I know
> that others are having this same problem, intermittently. If you've
> purchased a gear reduction starter from any of a variety of sources, and
> find that it spins up without engaging once in a while, this is the fix.
>
> Otherwise, I'm quite pleased with the operation of the starter, and I
> think it certainly has enough starting torque for those with
> high-compression engines.
>
> Cheers, all.
>
> --
> Michael D. Porter
> Roswell, NM (yes, _that_ Roswell)
> [mailto:mporter@zianet.com]
>
> The gulf between content and substance continues to widen....
>
> ///
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