Date:         Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:42:21 -0700
Reply-To:     Brian Jarvinen <brianvwagain@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Brian Jarvinen <brianvwagain@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      where did the starter bushing go?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Well it has been another long couple weeks sorting out
electrical
gremlins. [I'll have another post shortly about
alternator fun.]

I am in the process of replacing a starter and
naturally this requires
changing the starter bushing. (Thank you VANAGON
archives!)
Per the many posts over the years I went to do it with
a 12mm tap
(some posts mentioned a 7/16 tap but I figured the
metric would
be more accurate) but ran into a surprise in the
process. A bit of
background - 84 Westy, stock 1.9L, manual trans; after
removing
the starter (but without taking off the axle, I really
don't wanna do
that if I don't have to), by finger-tip feel alone it
felt like
perhaps the bushing was already splitting in two as I
could feel
a pronounced gap in part of it's circumference. I
hoped I could
exploit that with a pair of needle nose pliers perhaps
but of course
the bushing is in there far tighter than that. So I
turn the tap in
and it gets a nice bite going and is moving down in
there until
resistance ends. Per what I have read I kept turning
several more
turns assuming the bushing was in the process of being
backed
out up the tap. And of course most of this is done on
feel
without being able to see much, especially with the
axle
still attached. So after what seemed like enough
additional turns
to get the bushing moving out I figured by now I could
pull it the
rest of the way, so I pull the tap out.

And there was no bushing! There was plenty of metal
debris all
over the tap, but I didn't hear any metal sounds of
the rest of it
falling anywhere. So my question is: Where did it go?

Could it have been so thin that the tap extraction
process made
it disintegrate?

What is the front of that space in the housing like,
could a lot of
fragments fit in there?

Let's say some of them got into the flywheel space -
would this
be a terrible thing, or would they end up at the
bottom of the trans
case never to be worried about again?

After this happened I finally went out and got a new
battery for
my flexi-flashlight and took as much of a peek in
there as I could.
As far as I can tell there is no remains of the
bushing to be seen,
but you can't see the entire cavity, and most of it
not all that great.
I also tried to get what I could out of there with a
small vacuum
cleaner with an empty receptacle and then examined
what I
got ... some pieces of definitely brass-looking metal,
but no more
than 5-10% of the volume of the infernal thing. By
feel with my
pinkie it seems completely gone.

Now I can't quite decide what to do and since this is
Friday night
and I don't expect a lot of response until Monday, I
think I'll muddle
forward and put in the new bushing and the new
starter. This is a
daily driver and I'm falling pretty far behind in life
right now
and need to get back on the road.

Installing the new one is nagging at me now too, I
found this in
an old post:

>I rigged up a tool to get the new bushing in by
jamming two nuts
>onto a long bolt, with enough exposed length to match
the depth
>of the new bushing. I used some rubber tape to expand
the end
>of this improvised tool so it held the bushing
snugly. Oiled it
>up, and tapped it into place **very gently** with a
light hammer.
>The brass bushing breaks easily, so no pounding!

(I guess I experienced that 'breaks easily' part.) I
don't totally follow
this...the new bushing will be on the end of the bolt,
somewhat firmly
on top of the tape, so when you tap on the end of the
bolt the whole
thing will slide in but then the bolt and tape will
slide back out once
it is all the way in? This seems like the best idea
I've read, better
than using a bolt minus tape as this would seem to
score up the
bushing pretty good?

Some more info on installation I found was this:

>The bolt needs to be very close in diameter to the
hole in the
>bushing.  Run the nut up the bolt for the length of
the bushing and
>then place a dab of grease on it and then the
bushing.  The
>grease holds the bushing on.  Then guide into hole
and tap in.

Grease holding it on seems counter-intuitive to me.
Once it is in
the hole the friction of the walls of the trans case
will be stronger
than the grease and the tool will come back out,
right?

And finally to make this all more than you ever wanna
know
about one of the more frustrating parts anywhere in
these things,
this great advice bears repeating:

>Make sure that you lubricate the new bushing before
you drive it in.
>
>*stand the new bushing on your thumb.  Fill it to the
brim with
>motor oil.  Cap it with your index finger and
squeeze.  This will
>allow the oil to penetrate the walls of the bushing
and permanently
>lubricate it.  You will notice that the oil will
"sweat" out
>through the walls.  It is very satisfying.
>
>*it is best to drive the new bushing in with a
dedicated tool that
>will not mar the lip or surfaces of the bushing.  A
marred bushing
>will drag the starter down.  Find or make a suitable
installation tool.

One last question: now that the bushing is well lubed
via oil saturation,
should I still put a bit of lithium grease on the end
of the starter shaft
before installing it? This would seem the best way to
extract it as I keep imagining a well lubed bushing
coming back out of the hole?



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