seems to be a lot of this about and I'm wondering who it is that's reconing these at the moment and whether they fit a new cap to the solenoid as that is the bit that makes the bridge connection - our cap is fairly unique as it has the long main live pin - these caps are available, but not many places will carry them in stock and you see a lot that have had them replaced with short pins ones, if they just clean them and refit this could be the problem.
Personally I find it best to get your own starter reconditioned by the local guy and talk to him, insist on the cap being replaced and the correct cap being used. Most towns will have a specialist who can easily be found by asking around the smaller garages. A good reconditioner will also know about and will supply a new bush for the bellhousing as a matter of course - maybe I'm just lucky but my guy is very good and will do it to a price (ie cheap as chips 90 day warranty) or to as good as possible standard which often won't be much more than twice a cheap job and half of what GSF et al charge, note that any that I sell have been done to best quality standard.
A couple of winters ago there seemed to be a shortage of these and poor quality amongst those that were available so I had a number reconned by him and sold out to members, unfortunately a number of the cores that came back to me were too foobarred to be rebuilt so at the mo I don't have any on the shelf - if you have any dead core petrol starters you want rid of then drop to me at Dubfreeze and I'll get some rebuilt properly, I'll even get diesel ones done too
My guy can get new Chinese made units (from the company that supplies VW Shanghai) for the same price as GSF recons but I haven't tried these and I have to buy them in threes
Poor starters
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