Starter problem on Kohler

[Jerry F]

Hi all, I am having a very strange problem. It happened when my drive belt broke on my craftsman mower. I pulled the deck out of my way and replaced the belt, put deck back on. I never had starter problems before this. I go to start and it sounds like the starter is "spining" (not grunting or humming) but not turning motor. I want to see whats going on so I pull off the top cover and can see the the starter gear is engaging flywheel but defintly sounds like it is free spinning but the gear is not turning. Motor is not stuck, I can turn it by hand. I assume bad bendix or some such and order new starter. put new one on and exactly the same thing happens with new Kohler starter. I dont see the connection between the replaced belt and the starter but thats when it happeded. Anybody have any idea's for me? Thanks Jerry

 

[JayWalt]

jerry f,
Not sur eof your config, but if the starter engages teeth on the flywheel, and its freespinning, if the flywheel is turning, but the engine isn't turning over, you may have sheared a key off the flywheel. Kinda unlikley cause even without keys, flywheels usually have a tapaered shaft and require a puller to take off.
Kinda need more info on the setup.

 

[Jerry F]

Thanks for reply, The flywheel is not turning. The gear on the starter is not turning once it engages the flywheel. it just (sounds) like it is. It even sounds like it is coasting to a stop when I let off the key. thing is, I can see the gear on the starter is not turning. I can turn motor over by hand from the flywheel on top and see the shaft on the bottom turn with it.

 

[farmerjohninpa]

the loss of rotation is on the inside of the plastic gear that engages to the flywheel. on the starter shaft that the gear rides up on are helical grooves that when the atarter is energized causes the gear to ride up the shaft to engage the flywheel. take the starter off and disassemble that plastic gear and you will see that it is stripped out. most likely cause is the helical slots were never deburred and have been cutting at the plastic. deburr them and put a new drive gear assembly on the starter. good luck

 

[Anonymous-0]

Remove spark plug and see if engine turns,may be compression release not working.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Is this a model ch or cv kohler eng with sol mounted on starter & enclosed nose & lifting fork for starter drive engage to flywheel operated by sol(ala gm style starter)?If it is there sometimes are shim washers between starter & block(or you have to add with new starter)to set lash between starter gear teeth & flywheel,starter gear may be too tight against flywheel teeth & binding,causing override clutch to slip on new starter.

 

[Anonymous-0]

You didn't have the battery cables off did you? If the cables were reversed when reinstalled the starter will spin backwards and will not engage, or was the battery out and installed backwards.

David

 

[Anonymous-0]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I am feeling very embarrassed right now but will post anyhow so maybe someone else can learn from it.

Timberoak's response got me thinking but I knew I had not removed battery nor took cables off. Here is what happened. Somehow I managed to leave the key on when the belt first broke. It was close to a week before I got the belt replaced and tried to start it. The battery was completely dead. Both cables on the battery are black and I did not look close and reversed the charger cables and gave my battery a reverse charge. (I didnt even think that was possible). So the starter "was" running but going backwards so the gear didnt turn. I wish I would have asked here and got the responses before I bought the starter but thats the way it goes. At least I didnt take in to a shop and had insult added to injury. Thanks again... Jerry