I opened up and cleaned out this Prestolite MKW4001 starter off my 1973 115hp Johnson when I first got it. It was a mess inside and did seem to spin the motor a bit faster after a clean out. I was troubleshooting the motor a bit at the time. Since then I noticed that when the motor has been hard to start the bendix gear would spin but not engage sometimes. This times I have disassembled and clean the bendix. It seems to happen after a lot of cranking more so. Might have been doing it before I don't know. I also noticed the casing was very hot after cranking a few times. I would not crank for longer than about 10 seconds at a time but it was almost too hot to touch. Could also be solenoid also I guess. I pulled the starter apart again and found it was already quite dirty again inside but the condition of everything seems good. Checked the armature windings and all seems to check out ok. Magnets intact. I must say from first glance these starters don't seem as heavy duty or well designed as the Bosch ones. Much smaller magnets. One thing I noticed was that there is a wavy washer where the end of the shaft slots into the base cap. I am wondering whether I had previously put this back the wrong way (or whether it doesn't matter). The exploded diagram on the sales sites doesn't give this level of detail and I can't find a more detailed one. In fact it shows 3 washers in this position however the actual part shows just the two I have. See pictures - there is a groove in the flat washer where the rim of the wavy washer has been spinning against it. Not sure it that was there last time I had it apart or not so has possibly happened since. It probably a long shot but does anyone know which way it should go?
