LS starter internals
I have not taken mine apart yet, but the pictures I found online of these starter solenoids show a plastic shaft that I guess plunges forward of the solenoid. You mean to tell me that that little plastic ding-dong is all that physically causes the teeth to move forward and engage with the ring gear?? Is there some illustration of how this mechanism works? Wouldn't that be prone to failure?
Well, yes they are prone to failure....just not in the way you'd expect. I've had the chance to pull 3 of the LS starters apart (mostly to find enough good parts to make 1 good starter).
Brief history of the three starters involved:
1. 100 hour starter with broken casting nose piece (my fault...I caused it....longer story). This was the earliest manufactured starter of the bunch.
2. 800 hour starter with a loose solenoid core (loose within the metal housing).
3. ~200 hour starter (donated from a friend), fully functional and working when replaced by a different Skytec model.
Long story short...I ended up pulling all 3 apart after finding the internal plastic throw-out fork worn. Here's some photos of the internal guts.
Top photo shows the throw-out fork from starter #2 in the above list (white fork and ring on the right, along with the planetary ring gear which doubles as the top of the electric motor). Also in the photo is the throw-out fork from starter #1 (black throw-out fork and white throw-out ring) on the left side.
The bottom photo shows the throw-out fork assembly from starter #3.
Notice the worn (oversized) holes in the arms from #2 and #3. The debris around the holes (I thought at first it was some type of white grease) turns out to be plastic dust, worn from the ID of the arm hole where the throw-out ring snaps in. Compare these to the new looking parts from starter #1 (black arm, white ring).
Wish I had photos of the complete "exploded" starter assembly, but couldn't find any. So, a brief description of the starter assembly construction. The motor shaft drives 3 metal planetary gears inside a stationary plastic ring gear/motor top cover. This in turn drives the steel output shaft of the starter. The throw-out arm assembly, actuated by the on board starter assembly solenoid slide up and the output shaft so the starter output gear can engage the engine starter ring gear.
The plastic parts from all 3 do appear to be some type of glass filled material. Probably nylon or polycarbonate (my guess....not enough of a plastics engineer to say for sure). You can find similar looking material used on many auto parts, including engine related ones. So, the material isn't surprising. What is surprising is the wear in the throw-out fork holes.
To end my tale of the 3 starters, I did manage to put one working starter together. Ended up using it for about 4 months.....while I waited for delivery of a B&C starter (all metal internals
). Decided I'd take the 1ish pound hit on weight increase.