New Starter Grinding

[dopeboat]

Hi all, I bought a 1977 beetle from a guy whose kid had it as his first car. Needless to say, there has been some interesting work done on the car. The kid put a new starter in, which worked intermittently. The starter would immediately disengage about 2/3 of the time. The remaining third the car cranked like a dream. Well that wasn't good enough for me, so naturally I started messing with it. Pulled the old starter, which ended up not being the right one for the car. It was an Autozone special, and didn't have the little dimple in the casing surrounding the upper bolt to prevent it from spinning, so as you can imagine, it was quite a bear to remove. I got a reman starter from NAPA, which came with the new bushing. I pulled the old bushing (12mm tap) and installed the new one. Installed the starter and this is what I get. Grinding, groaning. Turns the engine over very slowly. Pulled the starter again and it doesn't look like the bushing is happy, but it's installed flush, and I pre-fit it on the shaft before installing. Sliding the starter into place it doesn't seem to have any issue gliding straight into the bushing. Bench tested the starter, it spins up just fine. My system is 12v, and I've confirmed the starter is the correct 12v one. Feel like I must just be doing something wrong and I'm puzzled as to how it could be grinding.


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[TDCTDI]

That flywheel looks a bit suspect. It looks like an aftermarket lightened unit that may be out of round or not installed correctly.


Check the end play of the crank & maybe have someone turn the engine by hand as you film the flywheel with the starter removed.
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[Cusser]

Not a good idea to "bench test" a non-supported VW starter, would be OK to bench test a self supported autostick starter this way.

I might suggest using a self supported autostick starter.
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1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[dopeboat]

[dopeboat]

[Cusser]

[baldessariclan]

From your video in the opening post, sounds & seems to me like the starter motor's drive gear clutch might be slipping - ?? I mean, it sounds like the starter motor is rotating somewhat at speed (under labor), but the engine is obviously barely turning over. Not hearing a bunch of loud grinding, like if gear teeth were broken or missing. So only thing I can think of that might be slipping would be that gear clutch.

On older stock starters, you can replace that drive gear and clutch as an integrated assembly - e.g. like this one in the classifieds:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2588420

There are different types for different starter styles, however, so not sure what type your Napa replacement might take. May be easier just to replace the whole starter...
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1971 Standard Beetle — fairly stock / driver

baldessariclan -- often in error, never in doubt...