Starter thrust washers

[carotman]

I was rebuilding my friend's starter tonight and I noticed the starter had been disassembled before. It seems I'm missing the thrust washers :(

I found only 1 washer on the brush side and that's it. Is this normal? I think I'm supposed to have more washers than that.

Also, the starter spins freely when the retaining bolts aren't tightened but once they're tight, I can't turn it by hand anymore. I of course made sure the planetary gears were aligned. Normal or not?

[Re-Vision]

Look inside the starter case, the magnets pull them off and sometimes they can bind the starter.    BDC

[Rikugun]

May not be adequate end play and some thrust washers were eliminated? I haven't had enough of these apart to know but perhaps more or less washers are used to accommodate tolerance fluctuations during manufacturing.

How are the "square edged" O-rings? Are they so mashed you loose end play while tightening the case screws? Also could be a misalignment issue. Try tightening incrementally between the bolts until final torque is achieved.

[Re-Vision]

They all have three washers at each end, a thick one sandwiched between two thin thrust washers.      BDC

[carotman]

I took the starter apart like 10 times to make sure everything was in it's place.

I got a new rebuild kit so the O-rings are brand new. I only have 1 thrust washer located on the brush side, nothing on the gear side. I did try to tighten the bolts slowly but the result is always the same.

I don't know the bike history so this starter might have unknown issues too.

When it's all assembled and I make it spin, I noticed the gear end was getting warm after a couple of test runs.