Discussion
I haven't heard of many but on my car the starter motor casing cracked, the pinion gear teeth wouldn't engage the starter ring properly, & resulted in both gears wearing out in about 3 attempted starts. The starter and ring were replaced by the factory, but still the motor did not want to engage properly, so I filed about 3-4mm from one of the starter bolt holes in the gearbox to allow the starter motor to rotate up towards the starter ring a small amount: problem solved. Bit scary when filing the gearbox though.
Yep, you may find that you have a 9 tooth starter that fitts on to the gearbox. I had to machine mine to get full mesh, as it was not far enough across the ring, and then spoke to Kennedy Eng, and they told me it should be a 10 tooth..... So also had to machine it radialy to get the teeth closer together.... I was pritty pissed about this, as I had bought a standard factory kit... I was on my 3rd starter gear by this time.....
Yes. Snapped off the pinion shaft. Unable to get a replacement part so bought a new one from factory. It is better than original(2002), turns harder, less susceptible to heat soak.
And to add, the original pinion did indeed have 9 teeth which worked but was noisy and I guess improper meshing probably caused failure. Luckily no damage to ring gear and new starter has 10 teeth on pinion.
>> Edited by gdr on Thursday 30th June 09:53
>> Edited by gdr on Thursday 30th June 09:54
And to add, the original pinion did indeed have 9 teeth which worked but was noisy and I guess improper meshing probably caused failure. Luckily no damage to ring gear and new starter has 10 teeth on pinion.
>> Edited by gdr on Thursday 30th June 09:53
>> Edited by gdr on Thursday 30th June 09:54
I had the same problem... take a bit off the holes as suggested... works a treat. Also, may want to take a bit off the starter flange (the end housing of the starter) to get it "closer" and further into the bell housing and so reach the ring gears. Mine used to only engage on half the ring gear (you could see by the wear marks), and so missengagement was possible.
My starter gear broke 3 times, that has now been fixed by putting in a new starter motor. If you have the G50 short box then you need the new starter motor that they supply, ask the factory. I have changed mine and it has fixed the recurring failure. the new starter gear is nearly twice as long and therefore engages properly.
First time mine failed was infront of a bar very embarrasing if it needs 6 people pushstarting.
First time mine failed was infront of a bar very embarrasing if it needs 6 people pushstarting.
FWIW when I changed from the original non-vacuum distributor to ECU controlled spark timing my starting got a lot easier. The computer runs a much reduced amount of timing (10 degrees BTDC) when the engine is cranking. Once it fires it can instantly wind on the advance it needs to catch the engine and keep it running (circa 28 degrees at idle on mine at the moment). It definitely reduces the load on the starter. Most ECUs can also be programmed to give the thing a few spark events before starting to spark. This lets the starter wind get a bit of momentum into the engine before firing and much reduces the chance of it kicking back.
gtrclive said:
Yep, you may find that you have a 9 tooth starter that fitts on to the gearbox. I had to machine mine to get full mesh, as it was not far enough across the ring, and then spoke to Kennedy Eng, and they told me it should be a 10 tooth..... So also had to machine it radialy to get the teeth closer together.... I was pritty pissed about this, as I had bought a standard factory kit... I was on my 3rd starter gear by this time.....
Checked the starter, and the new gear only has 9 teeth, the old one also has 9 teeth. As I said the starter sounds much better after the mods, but is anyone else running 9 teeth with no problems?
Ultima Factory said:Please describe the unique features of the Ultima starter. Has the starter manufacturer improved the component's strength? Or, are there size differences from those commonly available?
There have unfortunately been a few problems with starter motors over the years due to the variance in the different blocks, bellhousings and starter motors available but the factory has resolved all these issues recently by having the starter motors specifically manufactured for the Ultima.
There are now three variations and their use is determined by the year of manufacture of the transaxle and type.
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