I pretty much remanufactured a 2.2kW starter awhile back, new armature bearings, cleaning/greasing the drive assembly, sanding/cleaning the armature, replacing contacts and plunger, zinc plating the case, replacing O-rings, new wire insulation,---. But after a few months I started to get the dreaded click so tonight I pulled the starter and compared the newish plunger in it to a 28235-35080, the correct plunger for the 2.2kW starter. What was installed was a plunger (28235-54380) for the 2.0kW starter.
The differences between the plungers is that the 2.0kW plunger (-54380) has a longer shaft (~39.5mm) compared to 2.2kW (-35080) (~36mm). The spring at the top of the plungers is also slightly different. For those that don't know, when the solenoid is energized the plunger (barrel) gets pulled down causing the shaft of the plunger to push on a ball bearing which sits in the base of a larger shaft in the drive assembly which in turn pushes the pinion gear out to engage the flywheel.
Also noticed that the -54380 plunger (2.0kW plunger) did indeed push the pinion out a bit further than the correct plunger for the 2.2kW starter, but the problem in my opinion was not that the pinion went out too far and hit the teeth of the flywheel or anything like that. My best guess is that the plunger could not get pulled down enough to make solid contact with the solenoid contacts, maybe because it was fighting higher spring tension from the drive assembly due to the longer shaft, or just the design of the spring of the plunger itself. Either way it wasn't a problem on a cold start but once the starter got hot the difference in design between the two plungers was too much.
I don't have this 2.2kW starter back in yet but I'm thinking I've got the answer and another possible cause for a clicking starter, the wrong plunger. Top photo, 2.0kW plunger on the left (which had been installed), 2.2kW plunger (the correct part) on the right. Middle photo is the plunger for the 2.0kW starter, bottom photo the 2.2kW plunger.. Not shown are the overall lengths which are close; 96.75mm for the 2.0kW plunger and 96.50mm for the 2.2kW plunger, and the barrels are the same at ~37.50mm long each.
The differences between the plungers is that the 2.0kW plunger (-54380) has a longer shaft (~39.5mm) compared to 2.2kW (-35080) (~36mm). The spring at the top of the plungers is also slightly different. For those that don't know, when the solenoid is energized the plunger (barrel) gets pulled down causing the shaft of the plunger to push on a ball bearing which sits in the base of a larger shaft in the drive assembly which in turn pushes the pinion gear out to engage the flywheel.
Also noticed that the -54380 plunger (2.0kW plunger) did indeed push the pinion out a bit further than the correct plunger for the 2.2kW starter, but the problem in my opinion was not that the pinion went out too far and hit the teeth of the flywheel or anything like that. My best guess is that the plunger could not get pulled down enough to make solid contact with the solenoid contacts, maybe because it was fighting higher spring tension from the drive assembly due to the longer shaft, or just the design of the spring of the plunger itself. Either way it wasn't a problem on a cold start but once the starter got hot the difference in design between the two plungers was too much.
I don't have this 2.2kW starter back in yet but I'm thinking I've got the answer and another possible cause for a clicking starter, the wrong plunger. Top photo, 2.0kW plunger on the left (which had been installed), 2.2kW plunger (the correct part) on the right. Middle photo is the plunger for the 2.0kW starter, bottom photo the 2.2kW plunger.. Not shown are the overall lengths which are close; 96.75mm for the 2.0kW plunger and 96.50mm for the 2.2kW plunger, and the barrels are the same at ~37.50mm long each.
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