Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 12:57:04 -0700
Reply-To: Gary Shea <shea@GTSDESIGN.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Gary Shea <shea@GTSDESIGN.COM>
Subject: starter solenoid problems (and solution)
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
For the second time, the starter solenoid in my '81 westy had
crapped out. As it usually does, it waited until I was halfway
from home to a destination more than 500 miles away. It didn't
respond to the steel persuader (hammer) either. Push starts
in highway parking lots full of paranoid people can take time...
Well, I finally got it home, ordered a new solenoid from Bus Depot,
but that was going to take a week and I had things that had to
happen on time, and not knowing if the van would start was making
a nervous wreck out of me. Sunday I got under there and pulled
the starter (easy once you find the bolt behind the throttle body
in the engine compartment). On my van, I found removing the air
box and the air passage that connects the throttle body
to the air box were more or less necessary when trying to get
that damnable nut back on, so take 'em off right at the beginning
and everything goes faster. It's just two hose clamps and a couple
of hoses. Might be able to leave the airbox in place, but I
didn't try that.
Here's the scoop on the solenoid I had. It comes off the starter
body with two screws, no problem. Disassembling it is a bit more
complex.
First you have to use a soldering iron and solder-sucker
or solder wick (bradided copper wire that absorbs solder) to
get the solder off the two wires that poke up near the spade lugs.
Now MARK THE CASE AND WHERE IT MEETS THE PHENOLIC CAP!!! (The
cap fits on in two different orientations, and one of them is
very very wrong and your starter will make the strangest noise
as the bendix zooms in and out and the solenoid death-rattles smartly
on and off -- very disconcerting and of course the car doesn't start.)
Now undo the two screws recessed into the phenolic cap where
you have been de-soldering. The phenolic cap should pop off.
That's as far as I could get it apart. The solenoid inside is
captivated by what appears to be a pressed-on clamp on the
shaft, and the case is turned in at the edge where it meets the
phenolic cap.
Towards the cap-side are the contacts for the big switch that
lets current get through to the starter. I cleaned mine up a little
bit but they were basically fine. The starter-side contact did not
come off the phenolic cap in the solenoid I had (it's sort of
pressed into place).
Reassembly requires making sure you install the paper ring that
fit between the solenoid body and the phenolic cap (I forgot it
the first time around...). Screw the cap on with the two screws.
I put rubber cement under the heads of those screws to help keep it
clean in there. Solder the wires back in. Take some rubber cement
and put a healthy bead of it along the sealing ring where the
solenoid body meets the cap. Now take some hospital or other
cloth tape and tape down over the rubber cement. Rub it down so
the cement goes through the tape. It's fairly similar to the
original seal... I had weatherstripping glue around and that's what
I used.
I am not convinced that going through all the trouble to get the
back cap off is worth it, not to mention if you get it back on
backwards like I did and spend the next hour and a half going through
all this all over again. I don't think my solenoid had any problems
there, so I'd recommend skipping it and looking at the next paragraph
instead!
The problem my solenoid appeared to have is that the grease on the
shaft that pulls the starter fork back (which in turn pushes the
bendix out) had hardened up enough so that the solenoid shaft
movement seemed a little sticky and rough. When I gave it full
power from the battery it still worked fine, but in the car it
appeared to not do so well. I dripped a bit of penetrating oil
(Liquid Wrench) on
the shaft at the starter-housing end and it loosened right up.
I then took some leftover moly grease from my last cv-greasing
experience and kinda pushed it into the space between the solenoid
shaft and the solenoid body. It seemed willing to go down in there,
so there probably isn't an o-ring (like there should be) on that
shaft. Pretty soon the solenoid feels loose and healthy. Ok, guys,
you can stop now.
Screw the solenoid back onto the starter, making sure of course
that the hole in the end of the solenoid shaft fits over the starter
bendix fork. Pretty obvious when you're assembling it. Dab some
kind of sealer on the bottoms of the heads of the two screws so that
the inside of the starter housing stays clean. Again I used weather-
stripping cement. Or did I? Uh oh... I think I forgot to. Well,
don't you do the same thing! :0
Now of course your car will start reliably every time. I hope.
I'm gonna take my new solenoid and stick it in the emergency kit
for next time I'm stuck in the middle of Wyoming. Probably be
a snowstorm, with my luck.
Gary
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Shea shea@xmission.com
Salt Lake City http://www.xmission.com/~shea
