Starter trouble!!

[carcenomy]

Hey everyone

Just bought my first EXA... and already need some tech help.

The car seems to suffer from a starter issue. When a starting attempt is made, the starter grinds loudly not unlike if you try hit the starter when the engine is running. By putting the car in gear and rocking back and forward, it usually DOES start.

What kind of issue am I looking at here? Ring-gear worn? Starter solenoid jamming? What's up with this suckah? HELP!


Nick.
FireEngine Red N12!

[Chaotic]

E15ET Ring Gear Grinding Fix

For the e15et owners that have the dreaded grinding sound when trying to turn the engine over you may like to know I've found a cheap solution to have it back to new.

For those of you who don't know, the grinding sound is due to your ring gear on the flywheel being overly worn, which results in the start motor not throwing in and mating with the ring gear properly. This is a common problem with e15et engines however can be resolved with not to much money being spent.

What I have found is the ring gear on naturally asperate N12's such as the normal pulsar or Astra can be used on the e15et's flywheel. Although the flywheels on these cars from the manual version is different, the actual ring gear itself is exactly the same and usually the gears on the std pulsars are in very good condition.

Although looking at the flywheels you would think that the ring gear is all one piece with the flywheel this is not actually the case! What can be done, is the ring gear can be carefully heated (via oxy) and removed from the flywheel itself and swapped over from the na pulsar to the e15et.

The ring gear going from the e15 flywheel to the e15et flywheel must be done with some urgency to ensure that you get the gear on the flywheel intime before it contracts to much and will not fit.

Once cooled the ring gear does not move and is exactly the same is was before. I did this with my flywheel when I was rebuilding my engine recently. I picked up the astra(n12) flywheel with good condition ring gear for $25 and cost me a further $25 for my mechanic to do the heating and swapping.. All up only $50 to fix a problem that really ticked me off, and would of cost way more to buy an e15et flywheel, if you could find one in better condition anyway !!

Hope this info helps some of you guys with worn ring gears ;-)



[quoted from the N12turbo.com website.]

[Chaotic]

when my car does it which is quite often i usually find putting it into reverse starts it most times but sometimes it is quite stubborn and have to resort to sticking my foot out the door and giving it a shove.

[Paul Smith]

There is a cheat for this problem. Take the starter off and elongate the holes with a file so that when you bolt it back on it can be pushed a little closer to the ring gear.

[JeffET]

But even that dont last for ever, if your flywheel is well and truly screwed!

[carcenomy]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

I think the next step is to get the little sucker up on some stands and drop the starter out so I can examine just how bad it is...

The more I drive the EXA the more I am getting to like it! Starter problems or not, it's still a fun car to drive. :-)

[kekilepep]

no need to put it on stands to pull off the starter :)

[carcenomy]

But its so low! How am I gonna fit my ethiopian ass under there?! :)

[Nisman]

the starter is on top of the gearbox ;)

[Chaotic]

mebbe his taking off the gearbox to look at the starter :)

[carcenomy]

Well that's something I didn't realize - I can't see the dang gearbox for all the plumbing under the little hood! These wee N12s are even more congested under the bonnet than my Fiero was with a 3800 in it! :-)

[Android 360]

what?? really??

got any pix of ur engine bay? they arent crammed at all i would think.
do u have some aftermarket stuff in there??

do u have a fmic with plumbing going everywhere?


the starter is one of the easiest ive ever had to take off
reconditioning them is basic too!

[Nisman]

with the stock inlet tract they are pretty congested, but do away with that and there is so much space it isnt funny

[carcenomy]

Ahhh screw it, I'll pull the beastie into the shed tomorrow and start whipping bits out. Yes, I'll have some photos of the car soon...

Makes me feel less special now that I've seen everyone else having N13s painted bright red :-P


Nick.

[carcenomy]

Right... I've taken the starter off and I think I've cracked the issue.

The worn spots on the ring-gear are only on the first 2mm or so of tooth, the rest of the tooth in the damaged section (bout 8mm or more) is fine...

It's the starter itself thats needing attention! The bearings are all poked, so its tending to throw itself out on an angle and only catch the aforementioned first 2mm of tooth... so I think I better start looking for a repair kit. :-)


Nick.