OK, Penisioner. Did you ever notice the striking resemblance between Peggy and a certain Bay Area Syncronaut?

BenT

sent from my broken stater

On Nov 20, 2011, at 1:57 PM, Al Knoll <anasasi@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Our esteemed membership mentions:
> 
>>>> As for starter performance the permanent magnet, gear reduction starters
> are
> becoming extremely common due to their light weight and low cost.<<<
> 
> Not really low system cost, see below.
> 
> and
> 
>>>> Thank you. I've had the same issues with Bosch rebuilds. One was slow
> cranking. The second one has an occasionally sticking solenoid. This on an
> automatic with an inline-4 installed at 15 degrees.<<<
> 
> I too took the WestyVentures TDI path.  Mixed results.  To adapt the
> adapter to work on a syncro transmission with locking differential requires
> quite a bit of grinding and fitting.  Clearly explained by Karl and
> understood by me.  However the TDI starter itself requires some grinding of
> the flange to get it to fit.  This makes it pretty testy to have Bosch
> replace the TDI starter if it fails (two did)  Not an inexpensive venture
> and a questionable solution at best.  Both TDI starters (new by the way)
> failed with internal shorts drawing massive amounts of current and
> blistering the paint on the starter body all within  six months and
> 5000mi.  Why they failed?  Yet unknown.  But TWO sequential starters failed
> this way.  The second failure involved the starter failing to STOP when the
> start signal was removed (no problem with the ignition key
> switch)  It continued to spin merrily along (not engaged with the ring gear
> as the 'bendix' failed too). Disconnecting the mains at the battery brought
> the show to a halt.
> 
> Thanks to a liberal application of increasingly rare frogskin lubricant
> ($$) and the heroic and much-appreciated work of StephansAutoHaus here
> in Sacramento the problem was segwayed into installing a SR401X
> (remanufactured?? Bosch 'classic')  which worked for a few days then became
> increasingly difficult to engage and had the deadly slow crank problem.
> Made the timid owner fearful of venturing far beyond the reach of tows to
> Stephans.  Now it must be noted here that NONE of the maladies had anything
> to do with the quality of service or repairs at S.A.H.  It was all BOSCH
> equipment failures.  The 401X failure was an
> internally malfunctioning "solenoid" right out of the box from
> "Peggy".   BOSCH Customer service and the kewl little blue
> guarantee/warranty thingy in the box is PDW  (pretty damn worthless).
> Simply an advertising ploy to snare the customer into providing free
> quality assurance final testing of their products (Kinda like Microslop and
> Service Packs).  Repeated calls to BOSCH-offshore (their CS answering folks
> in lordy-knows-where, who all seem to named Peggy or something) was
> fruitless.
> 
> The good news is that SAH once again filled the breech with warranty from
> their supplier (WorldPac) and installed the second SR-401X "remanufactured
> in Peggy's basement"  starter and it works dandily so far.  No other
> changes to the van at that time.  FWIW  Bosch Reman is done abroad just
> beyond the sunset at BurningVan not in Merkel-land-of-the-Euro as you might
> guess.
> 
> I actually haven't had the chance to test it all that much as the venerable
> van has been pretty much deadlined over the summer with two attempts at
> repairing the transaxle by a vendor.  The van is of course now resident
> camping at SAH while the transaxle is being repaired once again.  11Kmi on
> the first repair.  Since April of 2008, I have put only ~12K dawdling,
> meandering miles on the van, not by choice but shall we say, by
> circumstances beyond my control.  Been through four, count em four, BOSCH
> starters of two types (TDI and 401X) in that mileage time.  Snicketted for
> sure.  Bad Juju?  Butt, who nose?
> 
> We have spoken before about our venerable road-divas-in-decline and the
> cost of entertaining such demanding old ladies, as hardening of the tubes
> and entropy robs them of their youthful beauty.  Perhaps these are rich
> men's follies, expecting things to work out for the best.  Wooden sailboats
> and airplanes seem cheaper.
> 
> With SAH, warranty repair is never a problem.  BOSCH and other vendors not
> so much.  Even the computer-generated BOSCH warranty on the fancy blue
> paper is worthless birdcage liner.  So my advice is get the estimate in
> advance, get a written warranty dated and signed if necessary before
> venturing out into the wilderness or even just down the road.
> 
> And insofar as "Slow Barley" ( quote below)  is concerned, I'm all for slow
> and perhaps protracted barley therapy to take the edge off starting the
> syncro and the other maintenance problems.  I prefer IBU>40 for my barley
> therapies.
> 
> To wit:
> 
>>>> Dennis mentions
> As for rebuilds even the Bosch brand is hit or miss. On a recent automatic
> it took
> three attempts to get a correct, properly working starter.
> 
> Did the slow barley crank it thing. Confirmed all circuits and battery OK.
> Got another Bosch
> SR25X and cranks wonderfully. Slow cranking starters are not normal.
> <<<
> 
> ...see above
> 
> Neither are folks like me, who are slow, cranky, persnickety starters, and
> prone to barley therapy along the way ...
> 
> 
> Pensionerd (shiftless at the moment and Jonesin' for camping)