I agree,
The one way clutch for the starter gear is bad. It may have been
contaminated with oil.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Dennis
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 10:37 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Vanagon starter final drive issues?

For those of you experienced with the internals of the vanagon starter:

When doing my engine conversion, I had my 1990 Westy starter rebuilt.
In
the year the project languished, the starter lay unused, and the
rebuilder
retired.

Increasingly, (about 50% of the time) the starter spins up, but does not
engage the flywheel.  Naturally it never did this before the rebuild.  I
removed it once, and took it in to another bosch shop.  They bench
tested
and gave it back declaring it fit for service (they didn't energize it
more
than once I would guess).  So before I remove it again and bring it in,
any
thoughts?  My guess is that despite being freshly rebuilt, I now have a
bad
final drive.