BX not starting; starter pinion gear tooth hitting against ring gear tooth preventing engagement

[techwing]

My BX1500 isn't starting reliably. I can hear both the fuel and starter solenoids clicking.

When I had my son attempt to start it while I was up front so I could watch what was happening with the starter, the pinion gear was not meshing with the flywheel outer ring. A tooth on the pinion gear runs into a ring gear tooth. When this happens, the plunger cannot drive far enough forward to complete the circuit for the starter motor to rotate.

If I manually turn the ring gear so the teeth are aligned to mesh, it starts right up. The plunger pushes all the way forward, the pinion and ring gear teeth mesh, the starter motor runs, and the engine starts.

The only thing I can speculate is maybe the solenoid contacts are wearing, requiring the plunger to extend further forward before making electrical contact. If these contacts made earlier, the starter would start spinning and allow the pinion gear to synchronize with the ring gear instead of getting stuck.

Is there something else that might cause this that I am missing?

It looks like getting this starter out of the BX1500 isn't especially convenient. Any suggestions for removing this starter, if I have to rebuild it? I've read in this post that it may be possible if I drain the oil and remove the oil filter and and sensor? Another user in that thread indicated he also removed the counterweight; is that necessary?

Thanks!
Jason

 

[bird dogger]

Sorry, I have no experience on your tractor. But your symptoms are/were the same as I experienced on my old JD750. At first I was able to buy an aftermarket contact replacement kit and rebuilding and lubing the starter helped. But not for long. When I had the starter out I could see the ring gear teeth were worn in a few spots. Being a 3 cylinder, the wear areas were 120 degrees apart on the ring gear. Like yours, moving the crankshaft to a new spot via rolling the tractor would help in starting. But again, being a 3 cylinder, the tractor would normally stop in one of those 3 worn areas. It was time to replace the ring gear. Which did solve the problem. Hard to say if that's your problem with starting but it's something to look for if you remove your starter.

If you have an inspection panel on your bell housing you might easily remove it and see the wear on the ring gear through that. I posted some pics of my starting issues here. See posts 12 and 14.
(1) BX1800 Starting Issue - not engaging | OrangeTractorTalks - Everything Kubota
It wasn't a difficult job but did entail splitting the tractor to replace the ring gear. But an inspection of your ring gear either through an inspection panel or your removed starter will give you more insight. Hope this helps a little.

Another option for me, had I not been able to find a replacement ring gear would have been to remove the gear and rotate it 60 degrees on the flywheel.

Regards,
David