Common Starter failure?

[Trevor Jessie]

While at MG2014 in French Lick my starter failed. It would spin but not catch the ring gear. I finally found a few minutes today to replace it with a spare off the shelf. The pinion gear on the starter motor had detached from the bendix. Is this a common failure? Or just some oddball thing that could only happen to me? By the way, my wife never complained about having to push start the midget for a whole week.

 

[smaceng]

Trevor, you have one great wife........I have never seen this failure, usually the spring breaks on the Bendix.
BTW, you know, you could have pushed, and the wife could have dumped the clutch pedal.....just a thought.
Scott in CA

 

[Trevor Jessie]

But then she would probably drive off and leave me! She actually preferred to push because she wasn't comfortable with whole process. Not sure how, but the first time she dumped the the clutch she then immediately killed the car.

 

[AN5Sprite]

The only time my wife has driven a Sprite is while I pushed. I have tried many times to get her to drive under normal conditions and she just won't...

 

[nomad]

Keep her Trevor! My wife has only had to push a few time's and she won't let me forget it!:highly_amused:

I've had a spring fail but not that. I have a whole shelf of good starter's and a shelf full of BAD generator's

Kurt.

 

[Bayless]

The comon failure on starters seems to be people putting grease on the bendix. Pretty soon it catches dirt and fails to engage.

 

[David_Doan]

The comon failure on starters seems to be people putting grease on the bendix. Pretty soon it catches dirt and fails to engage.

what's the proper way to prep/lube the bendix? Mine is currently out of the car.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

I do not know. I've heard NO oil, but I've also heard people people suggest a few drops of 3n1 oil. I've never removed one that hadn't been covered in oil (from the rear scroll seal I presume). I clean mine with some brake cleaner to rid it of clutch dust and oil. Then I spray it with some electrical contact cleaner/protector. Seems to work fine.

 

[dklawson]

I was taught that the proper lube for the Bendix is/was to flush it thoroughly with brake cleaner and after that evaporates, put several puffs of moly powder or powdered graphite on the helix in the Bendix. It provides a dry surface lubricant for a while. I'm sure it works its way out pretty quickly. As above, no oil as it attracts dirt and gets gummy.

As Scott said, the common failure I have seen is the broken spring. Other than that the worst I have seen are severely damaged teeth on the pinion gear.

 

[jlaird]

Do they really brake, never had to replace one.

Wife who drove a bugeye for years to the store and raced it on weekends with me in Hawaii absolutely refuses to drive Miss Agatha, not even once has she been behind the wheel. Must be an age thing. And yes she had a very heavy foot and could out run all the guys in class.

 

[dklawson]

Do they really brake, never had to replace one.

Yes they (the springs) break but I would not consider it common. When I bought a project car it came with 2 Lucas inertia starters and both had broken Bendix springs. The only other failures I have seen are damaged pinion teeth but I am sure there are other failure modes.

 

[Jer]

Only starter issue I had was a broken spring along with a sheared cotter pin in the spring nut which caused the spring nut to back off, it had almost fallen off by the time I pulled the starter (which was still working but noise'y !)