Tom Caffrey (Pvcces) (64.114.233.97)
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 01, 2002 - 9:56 pm: | |
Joe, when the disc or the bolt heads show that they are worn or damaged so that they are not very close to where they were when new, you probably ought to replace all the damaged parts.
The reason is that the adjustment for the drive end needs to be set correctly to make all the features of the starter work.
We just got a lesson on this item about two weeks ago. Our starter suddenly stopped working, but it had been rebuilt over the winter. It did make a nice loud click when we tried to start the engine.
If the starter drive fails to mesh in the ring gear when you hit the starter button, instead of applying power to the armature anyway and risking damaging the starter and ring gear, the disc and bolts in the solenoid are not supposed to make contact, like they would in a car.
The fork adjustment controls this. You remove the cap over the fork and use a socket to set the fork adjustment. If the starter is on the bench, you would hold the plunger from rotating while you turn the nut.
If it is in a coach like ours, a 4106, and you don't want to remove the starter, you might use a small air wrench to adjust it. We did this and set it to about 1/8" of thread showing.
The starter works fine set that way. Our maintenance manual calls for 23/64" clearance between the drive gear and inside surface of the drive gear housing. The drive gear must be held towards the brushes with finger pressure during the adjustment.
If parts inside the solenoid are damaged or worn, including the fork bushing, then some of these adjustments are likely to be thrown off. When we rebuilt our starter, I had set the drive to housing clearance down to about 1/8", like I would have if it had been a car starter.
I found a reference to the failure of the starter to turn over the engine on the first press of the starter button in our books. It just said try it again, and it would likely work on the second press.
Ours has done this a few times, but never twice in a row since it was readjusted.
I hope this helps!
Tom Caffrey PD4106-2576 |