Kohler Starter Rebuild

[Racinbob 11,585]

Switch gears for a bit this morning. Some of you saw the blurb on the starter for my B-80 K-181. It was squawing something terrible and was definitely a bushing issue. I replaced it with an aftermarket. Had a little alignment issue that I fixed and, not mentioned, it pushed the shroud out a bit when it was engaged. Removing the dust shield fixed that. The old starter only needs a quick cleaning and rebuild. 

So.....on to my next simple project. What could go wrong here? 

 

 

Simple teardown. A good cleaning and I'll have a spare on the shelf. 

 

 

I picked up a rebuild lit on the flea and it kinda looks good. @Lane Ranger mentioned that he had bushing size issues with his.

 

 

Sure enough. The back bushing looks good. The front bushing is a no-go. Wrong diameter and flanged. 

 

 

I'm thinking the correct bearing shouldn't be too hard to find. But I've heard me say things like that before.......................

 

Anyways, these things are quite simple and as long as the windings are OK should be piece of cake to get back to new condition. I'll let you know about finding that bushing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ri702bill 8,821]

The most difficult part is the compressing of the springs and brushes at the same time at assembly. I made up four u shaped sheet metal parts for that...

[lynnmor 7,514]

Here is a video to help with the brush install.