Weststart, the Irish distributors of the Rhino Automotive rotating electrics brand, have issued some useful advice on fitting a popular Peugeot Hdi Starter. 

The STR8210- Peugeot Hdi Starter comes with a fitting dowel. The traditional method for locating a starter motor in relation to the ring gear has been a round hole in the bell housing and a corresponding shoulder on the starter drive end bracket. The shoulder fits snugly into the bellhousing hole, ensuring the correct mesh between the starter pinion and the flywheel mounted ring gear, leading to easy engagement, low wear rates and quiet operation.

An alternative locating method used by some, primarily French manufacturers in the absence of the hole and shoulder, is the use of a dowel to ensure accurate meshing. Sometimes both a dowel and a hole/shoulder arrangement can be found on the same starter. BMW for instance have one at the top of the M47/N47 diesels. It would seem that the dowel in this instance is an aid to assembly, i.e. it has no obvious function in aligning the starter drive meshing, which would appear to be accomplished by the usual starter drive end bracket collar and the corresponding bellhousing plate hole.

However, sometimes the dowel takes on a very significant locating function, as with the aforementioned French manufacturers, PSA, Renault, in particular, which use them to precisely locate their starters. In these instances it is imperative that the dowel is both present and located properly.

Installing a starter without the dowel will lead to problems. Some of the symptoms experienced may include; intermittent failure to engage  with an audible click, non-engagement with the starter spinning but not turning the engine over; noisy operation with grinding/tearing sound when starter is operated and lastly, lazy performance when the starter turns slower than normal, mimicking the symptoms of a poor battery.

Technicians should therefore make sure the dowel is both present and a snug fit.  They are a split roll pin construction and the split may be widened to ensure a press fit on assembly. Many new replacement starters will not come with a dowel as standard, as there are several different sizes of dowel and the best policy is to hold on to the original dowel from the old original equipment starter that is being replaced to ensure best fit.

For more information on Rhino and West Start’s other auto-electrical products and a list of stockist please visit; www.weststart.ie.