Posted by David Sherman on Wednesday, April 04, 2007 at 16:36:59 :
The sno-cat I got from Jonas has been having a harder and harder time getting the starter to engage. I can see the solenoid moving but the engine doesn't turn. It's gotten so I have to try it 20 or 30 times before it will engage. Originally I thought only took a couple tries and I thought it was due to cold weather. But it's not cold now and it will almost never engage. I finally got around to pulling the starter, assuming the pinion was stripped, but it turns out the pinion looks fine, as does the ring gear, though I haven't barred it over to check the whole gear yet. The wear pattern on the pinion shows full engagement. When I bench-test it with a battery, the solenoid slams the pinion forward with determination and it spins up nicely. I haven't torn the starter or solenoid apart, but since there are no metal shavings and it seems to work fine on the bench, I'm not sure what to look for. The only thing visibly wrong is the rubber boot over the solenoid linkage is crumbling. There's no way to install it and look in to see how it works under load. What could possibly be wrong?
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