Starter rebuild questions

Hi folks,

My starter is making some annoying noises. I bought a rebuild kit which includes 3 o-rings, brushes and brush plate, a bearing, a bearing seal, and 3 bushings.

It claims to have everything needed, but, it looks like only one of the bushings fits this starter, and there is no replacement in the kit for the front bushing.

So, first question, should I try to source a replacement front bushing from somewhere? Any suggestions on where to get one?

Second question: the rear bushing appears press-fit into a blind hole. Any suggestions on how to remove and replace it?

Last question: other than for the ring and planetary gears, is there any lubrication expected inside the starter? Or should those bushings be left "dry"?

 

Seems like no kits have the front bushing... not even Len's. Which seems odd, because it should be easier to change than the rear one. McMaster has some that look like they would fit, but they're $15 plus shipping. My local bearing supply place has one I can cut down in my lathe for about $5. I expect an arbor press or somesuch would be the proper way to press these bushings in and out (except the rear one, which will require some sort of puller). I don't have an arbor press, so I'll probably be doing things with sockets and maybe some custom made dies in my bench vise.

BTW, the two other bushings appear to be for the planetary gears.

 

Well, the local shop bushing is no good. I told them 18mm OD and 12mm ID. They sold me a 3/4" OD and 1/2" ID bushing. I could turn down the 3/4" to 18mm in the lathe, but I can add metal to made the ID smaller... So, now I've ordered the one from McMaster... And I also ordered some small size inside pullers. Maybe I'll have thing rebuilt by mid next week.

I get the impression that a lot of people buy these rebuild kits and then just swap the brushes and O-rings. I watched a video of one guy with this kit, and that's all he did. I'm rebuilding mine because it's noisy. The brushes are actually pretty good. I think it's going to need all the bushings and the bearing, though, in order to be quiet again.

 

Bunch of typos in that previous post, and I guess it's too late to edit it. Anyway, I meant to say that I can't add metal to reduce the bushing ID.

Cleaned up the parts. Chucked up the armature in my mini lathe and burnished the shaft ends. The rear one was probably responsible for some of that noise. It was a bit galled up. The brush surface of the armature cleaned up nicely in the lathe, too. Now just waiting for parts and tools to arrive.

Not sure whether I'll replace the planetary gear bushings... those seem just fine, and they also get grease, so I'm not really concerned about the lack of remaining oil in what were maybe originally oil impregnated bronze bushings.

 

Fill the hole in the bushing with heavy grease (wheel bearing grease works). Get a socket, piece of rod, or a cut-off bolt (not the threads) that fits as tightly as possible in the bushing. Support the housing on a bag of sand, and "wiggle" it so it sits down in the sand and supports the entire surface. HIT the socket/rod/bolt with a 2lb hammer. The grease will force the bushing out of the housing.
BTW- IF you use a socket, you will need to fill the square drive hole with an extension.... so the grease doesn't exit through the hole.

 

I ended up getting a puller kit for motorcycle sized bearings and bushings. It worked well. $20 + $10 shipping from eBay.

I was not able to get a suitable replacement for the middle bushing (which goes into the plate through which the armature pinion gear passes). The McMaster part was too big ID... I guess the original is more like 11.85 or so.

So, I replaced the rear bushing, the front bearing and its seal, the o-rings, and the brushes and brush plate. I put a bit of Lubriplate on the bushings... since the oil embedded in the middle and front ones was long gone, and used some Lucas red grease for the planetary gear assembly. Sounds great now. Just normal cranking sounds. No hooting.

By the way, there is also a bushing in the front plate behind the bearing seal. So, 5 bushings total, counting the ones on the planetary gears, which I left alone.