Club 80-90 Forums

Firstly thanks to this thread https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... te#p300530
and this wiki https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Pe ... sh_removal

Van failed to start last week. It was a case of all the lights on, but no one home. Turn the ignition and nothing fired. Following my manual I did some checks on the battery voltage, alternator voltage and trying to short / jump the starter motor I could not get it to turn over. I was stumped so called the RAC, they did the same checks and concluded the starter motor was probably shot as the van fired up when it was given a push start. I successfully managed to drive the 2.5 hours home without stopping or stalling (You never need to stop for a pee unless you know you cannot stop).

Having given the nuts holding the starter to the engine some WD40 over night I managed to remove the starter motor. Its a 1.9 DG engine, 17mm nut at the top and a 15mm at the bottom. Used a hammer on the spanner to encourage it as it was not coming off. Didn't need to jack the van up or remove drive shaft as suggest by Haynes. I did remove the air filter box to give more space up top. The nut on the top needed a larger than expected allen key on the other end to stop it all from spinning.

Upon removal I found the wire coming from the selonoid to the starting housing motor was fried (the one that is on the outside of the casing). With hindsight, this fried wire is probably the reason why the van has been taking longer and longer to turn over when the ignition was turned. To me this seems like a poor design to have the wire exposed to the elements, but there may be good reason for this. Does anyone know why its like this?

I have bought a new starter from JK, £102 plus the £65 deposit for the old starter. I did consider re-soldering the wire on the old one, but there was nothing left to solder to. I guess a local sparky could have sorted it. A couple of threads here do not seem to give the JK replacements much life expectancy so I may be doing this again soon. The new one appears to be a Hella reconditioned one. Whether it lasts or not, the new starter had the van firing the minute the key was turned. Its like a new van.

Iv also removed the oilite bush from the bell housing, thank you to the guide I referenced at the top. An M12 tap on the end of socket did the job. Can any one tell me if the original bush is any longer than 10mm? Below is a picture of the bush I removed and the new one that is going back in tomorrow, very different lengths. Not a lot left of my old bush. Used a mirror and light to check the housing was free of any debris, but nothing left in that either.

There is a groove at the back of the bush housing , does anyone know if this is groove goes anywhere or just collects bits of bush when it disintegrates.

Will put it back together tomorrow after the new bush (£1.08p from GSF - who laughed when i said i would like to use my club discount!!) has soaked in oil over night.

Dave

Very common.....but only because of the age of our buses. A design fault, well quite possibly but then they were never supposed to last this long. I guess a shielded cable would have been better but then a good dollop of high melting point grease will stop it corroding.

Martin

You may have planned how to get the new bush in, but the method I used was a long bolt, undersize to fit inside the bush with a nut backed up on the thread, enough to support the bush full length, put some tape around the bolt for a snug fit of the bush, not tight or loose so it will hold the bush, then locate into bush housing and tap gently in as squarely as you can, until fully home. The last thing you want to do is loose the bush where you can’t get at it, stuff some rag into the fly wheel area so there is no chance it will disappear down in the bottom of the bell housing, remove the rag, fit the starter, reconnect the battery, turn the key, check mirror for big smile. Happy days, good luck

sounds as effective - and a little cheaper than -
starter motor bush removal tool - 55 squid!

http://www.vwheritage.com/vw_parts_Work ... try_GB.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

£55 bush removal tool !!!! I felt guilty about not trying to renew the old starter. I feel slightly better now iv seen that tool.

Shoved a rug in the bell housing thank fully - best simple advice of the day. The bush dropped out on one occasion. That simple, obvious advice of blocking the housing with a rag needs needs putting in the Wiki.

Used the long bolt and nut from the starter with a bit of electrical tape around the thread to get the bush started. With the bush oiled over night it slid off the tape once it found the hole.

I used a very expensive drift and my calibrated hammer to gently tap the bush home. I will be off to the patents office tomorrow to compete with the removal tool.

p.s. Do not use your G/F or wife's wooden spoon as a drift. The wood is too soft and the bush just digs into the wood, oh and the misses is not too happy when it comes to Sunday lunch time and the spoon has 'gone missing'