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This procedure was documented and photographed by Bruce Ward - very excellent job BTW.



The symptoms of GSS are:



Starter engages briefly, but then disengages followed by a high speed whizzing sound.

Starter is slow to crank

Starter fails to engage altogether







Its is going to be a few days before I test it out but I followed Dave Greimann's instructions and took some photos. I will add a little to what he posted previously.



Update it has been two months and despite much driving through a recent spate of wet weather and a week of being the daily driver for the wife GSS has not reoccured



1. Remove the starter from the car by following the appropriate procedures to disconnect the battery, and using jackstands yadda, yadda, yadda. You need a 17mm socket, 17mm wrench, ratchet and 6 inches of extensions to remove the remove the starter bolts. I tried a 9" extension which is too long so I used a 4" and a 6" which worked out just right. Then you need a 13mm and 10mm wrench to remove the bolts that hold the wires. I had to remount the starter upside down to break loose the 13mm nut that holds the main powerline.





2. On the very nose of the shaft, there is a collar held in place by a split ring. Drive the collar back toward the gear and expose the split ring. I took a deep 15mm socket and mated it against the collar and tapped with a hammer. This pushed the collar free.



3. Wrestle the split ring out of the groove and and remove the collar, This is the toughest part. A small screwdriver popped it out easily.





4. Remove the braided ground strap nut from the terminal. This one is 13mm again, I found it easy to remove.



5. On the end of the starter opposite the gear, remove the two small nuts that are on long threaded rods. It is quite possible that you will unscrew the rod from the casting instead of actually backing the nut off. That is OK. I let some oil soak in on these but both came out with the rods attached. I used a deep 9/32" socket to reach the nuts.



6. The bendix and its casting should be in your hands now. Spray a solvent cleaner like Brakekleen all over it to remove the dirt and grime. Pay special attention to the tube where the driveshaft goes.



Before









7. After it is clean, lube the shaft and tube with some light oil. I wouldn't use grease, it may be too goopy to keep the action light and snappy.



After









I could not contstrain myself and did use grease on the internal gearing behind the shaft. I used a light coat of mobil one 15W50 on the remaining parts.



Before I started the bendix would stay extracted after release. Now it pops back in as soon as I release it.



8. Reassemble. The only part of reassembly that I found difficult was the ring and collar. First slide the collar to the bottom of the shaft. It is pretty easy to get the ring in place. It should be strethced enough that you can line it up with the groove and use a hammer to tap it into place. But sliding the collar back over it will be the most difficult part of the process. I used a pair of pliers to squeeze the ring in different positions closing it as much as possible. Then I turned the starter upside down and placed a 12mm open ended wrench above collar with a block of wood supporting the other end. Then I tapped the wrench with a hammer. That forced the collar over the closed end of the ring. I rotated the shaft and a few more taps had the whole ring under the collar.



I plan to make an under car external cleaning and light oiling an annual service item.

Awesome! Thanks for the contribution!

Is Bruce one of the hold-outs? I don't see him here. Otherwise I'd ask him for higher-res photos and turn this very helpful article into a .pdf for us.

I've just done this DIY on my '94 Club Sport. A few comments:-



1) Many thanks to Bruce and Greimann - the description is excellent and the job went quite smoothly. I had symptom #1 but starter works fine now.



2) one challenge I had was undoing the long fine bolts that hold the whole starter body together. Problem was I did not have a long 9/32" socket. Solution was to drill centre out of a short 7mm socket (it is a metric car!) so the socket could reach the nut.



3) second challenge was trying to refit the cabling after re-installing the starter. Its so crowded under there that in retrospect it would be smarter to bolt cabling back on the starter before re-installing into the bell housing.



otherwise this is a straight forward task. thanks again.

i agree. this was a good idea. i'm glad it was posted. i never would have thought of it.

i had a couple thoughts for the group. keep in mind i'm no genius...



the motor brushes on my starter were obviously worn down quite a bit. anyone look into a source for new ones? would only take a few minutes when you have the whole thing apart anyway.



i had some motor cleaner spray from my teenage r.c. car racing days that i really doused the brush area and armature area with. i couldn't believe all the black goo that came out! i would recommend doing this.



i found that the gears worked much more smoothly with just machine oil on them instead of bearing grease. i tried the grease and it seemed to gum up the gears and add a lot of resistance. so i cleaned it off and oiled everything. just my opinion. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/unsure.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

Machine oil would be OK too. The gears are not really in jeopardy of being the first thing that wears out, requiring replacement of the entire unit.



I did the GSS cleaning a couple of times, but eventually had to replace the starter altogether with a reman unit. It would intermittently skip and spin without engaging. The internals just wear out and get sloppy, as does the nose bushing in the bellhousing.

Anyone know where we can find these photos? It's time for me to tackle this job and the pics are missing both from here and RL.

Fixed

Thanks Bandit! I don't have to work Wednesday or Thursday. Should be able to tackle it then.

As the OP said, by FAR the hardest part of this job is getting that split ring off the shaft. I must have struggled with it for two hours, but fore some reason, split rings and circlips give me fits; I must not be using the right technique on them. Once you get the split ring off, the rest of the job is pretty easy.

Removed, disassembled, cleaned, reassembled, replaced, started on first try! Process went fairly smoothly for me. Most difficult parts (for me) were breaking loose the 2 17mm bolts holding the starter in and getting the collar back over the split ring. Everything else went great!

I have noticed that Gummy Starter Syndrome strikes my car when it has been driven for a while, then left to sit for 30-45 minutes. I theorize that the starter is heat soaking, and the solenoid is being rendered ineffective. If the car sits for only a few minutes, or if it sits for a longer time, then it's fine. It's the 30-45 minute range that can give me fits, and it will take 15-20 tries to start the car. A new starter is sitting in a box waiting to be installed.

Take a good look at the cables going to the starter, possibly including peeling back some of the sheathing so you can get a good look at the insulation on the cables. It's very common for these cables to fray, and for the insulation to get very brittle, causing all sorts of strange behavior, including being unable to turn the starter off (this actually happened to me!), and even having the car start itself (strikes me as urban legendy, but I seem to remember some people reporting this). Good luck.

This may be my required fix. My starter gives a sort of dying gasp when the key is turned, followed by a pause and then pretty ordinary starting action. Each time I think the gasp is the last, but it keeps starting. Checked the battery with my charger and found it adequately charged. The battery is more than six years old (a Diehard), but seems pretty good. Should I do the starter disassembly. I know it is at least six years old.

I'd hook up a fresh battery before I started taking things apart. A 6-year old battery is past it's useful life.

While a new battery may indeed be in order, it sounds the current one is still doing the job. To be clear, the classic symptoms of gummy starter syndrome are as follows:



1. Turn the key

2. The starter starts to turn, but doesn't ever fully engage the flywheel, and gives a distinct, futile whir

3. After one or more repeats of 1 & 2, it the starter finally engages the flywheel, and the engine starts



Does this describe what you're experiencing?

My gummy starter would engage and the engine might turn over and fire once, maybe twice, then "wwhhiiiizzzzzzz".

That makes sense, and demonstrates that there are varying degrees of "gumminess."

Is a whhiiizzzz the same as a whirrrr? I notice a distinct whirrrr occasionally after starting my car. I suspect it is a starter issue, but don't even have 65K on the car. Is it an age issue or a mileage issue? Do I have the gummy starter syndrome?

I think I heard my starter whiRRR a few times before it eventually gave up completely . If it is your starter the good news is the rebuilt ones are not only relatively inexpensive but also very easy to install.