The shipping to the USA (the only option I can find) plus the overhaul cost is more than buying a new one!
I bought the suggested replacement 149NL/EC (which runs a lot slower) from Saywells in Worthing, UK, but they don’t process the cores.
I suppose one could open it up and grease it 
I have read your earlier thread. Interesting. I had a (non-EC) 149NL fitted new last year and it runs super-fast and is a great starter. I love it. My plane used to be a pig to start when hot (it simply refused to start on occasion, until it had cooled down), and now it starts every time when hot, often immediately and first time.
Has there been a recall or is it that the 24v-switched 149NL just doesn’t last very many hours? Do they still sell non-EC 149NLs for 24v TB20s? I do hope I don’t need to get rid of one of my all time favourite upgrades!
Howard
They don’t allow 3rd party repair unfortunatly. As you found out shipping the unit back and forward will be quite expensive and doesn’t make sense.
When I had contact with them, they said they were not interested in that either.
They will do it but the carriage costs are too big.
It would make sense if sent to the USA with an engine, for example.
I will probably be sending mine over there in the next year or two…
But anyway I can’t see this starter is that complicated. I can’t see why an A&P cannot repair such an item? A legal overhaul, no, but then an overhaul is not legally required.
They don’t want / allow third parties to work on these, so they don’t supply parts (other than shear pin or something like that)
When I talked about this, this was because they could only FAA-PMA certifiy the complete product, and not individual / spare / parts under the approval and procedures they had then (a couple of years ago)
before sending the starter anywhere I´d have a look inside, it is broken, after all, somewhere. I´d be very curious to learn what can go wrong with these. So when getting a new replacement I could think about some mod or at least do a reassembly according to my findings in the old one to see some more hours of use from the new part. I can well imagine that the planetary gears die from lack of lubrication – provided you don´t have an electrical problem. Typically you may find some blob of stiff grease sitting in a corner out of reach of gears so the unit actually runs dry for hours – with obvious consequences.
In that type of gearbox you would like to have extra soft grease that creeps so it can reach all places to do its job. That grease is called Fließfett in my country – creeping/flowing grease. As in this starter there may well be extra high load on the gears I´d add MoS2 powder to the grease. That stuff is extremely helpful for max loads on all steel faces and often added to gearbox oils etc. .
I just cannot see why there is so much fuss about repairing a starter: Is it a repair that effects airframe statics ? Is it a repair that effects air safety ? Nothing like that, it is only used on the ground, basically. It either works or does not and you stay on the ground. So all jobs done should be minor and OK for any mechanic to do. Getting spares is another matter …..
No information what is wrong with starter?
If only spinning free, I would say the back kick pin has worked. There are two more spare pins attached to base of starter you find after removal it from engine. Find the manual and replace!
The starter works but when initially energised there is a grinding sound and the engine does not turn. After a second or so it engages and starts the engine.
So I think the mechanism which drives the pinion out is sticky. I believe it is just a solenoid, not the inertial mechanism in the Bendix-type starters.
So I think it just needs greasing.
I thought it was repairable when this started but due to airport politics I am very limited in doing work which involves removing the cowlings… e.g. nowhere to leave the plane with the cowlings off. So it was easier for me to get another starter and put that in, which took an hour or so. Then I would end up with a spare starter, which is always good.
Come to think of it, I still have the original pig-slow starter somewhere…
Many thanks for the ideas
Anybody who would recommend to OH a “former genuine” Hartcell starter that I actually exchanged with a Skytech one (now Hartcell branded aswell) and to put the OH one starter on one shelf or is an old starter simply trash after 6 years of moderate use? (no FH idea at the moment, approx. 500 hrs, maybe).
