Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

It was starting a bit slow so I thought I'd remove the starter and give a good clean.

I came in from the left side of the car. Both through the engine and from underneath.

I had to remove the autobox dipstick holder to gain access to the top starter bolt.

There are only two bolts holding it on - 14mm
The starter feed to the solenoid is a 12mm nut and then a spade connector on the solenoid.

I dropped it out from underneath the car.

It was dirty as hell inside.

A good clean and reassemble has drastically improved the starter spinning speed.

Starter on the bench pre-disassembly


Gunk on the armature


Gunk on the brushes


The part number for the starter


The solenoid with plunger


Looking into the solenoid with plunger removed


The lever arm that gets moved by the solenoid plunger and engages the starter bendix to the ring gear on the flywheel/flexplate


Starter bendix. Looks fantastic after 296'000km of use. Mitsubishi uses good materials!


All cleaned up and ready for reassembly

How is the Pajero starting now?

I think that is maybe my problem as well, I'm just not sure if I want to do it myself.....

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it starts much better. only took me about 1.5hrs from start to finish

Nismo wrote:How is the Pajero starting now?

I think that is maybe my problem as well, I'm just not sure if I want to do it myself.....

Nismo,

Over the period of two weeks my Pajero begun starting slower and slower each morning. Initially I thought it was the battery, but after replacing it it still did the same. Next was the glow plugs, but I checked them and it was fine. Then I checked the EGR valve and cleaned it but it started worse every morning. One morning it stopped working completely.

Finally, after much &^%$^%$#$#*&%$@!, testing and asking around on the forum here, Mitspro's Freek told me, after inquiring about the model and km's that it was the starter - it had to be reconditioned. I pulled it and replaced with a recon unit they couriered to me and happiness since then.

R1600 later I was on my merry way again. I could not afford having the car stand still too long.

Nismo wrote:How is the Pajero starting now?

I think that is maybe my problem as well, I'm just not sure if I want to do it myself.....

Nismo,

Over the period of two weeks my Pajero begun starting slower and slower each morning. Initially I thought it was the battery, but after replacing it it still did the same. Next were the glow plugs, but I checked them and they were fine. Then I checked the EGR valve and cleaned it but it started worse every morning. One morning it stopped working completely.

Finally, after much &^%$^%$#$#*&%$@!, testing and asking around on the forum here, Mitspro's Freek told me, after inquiring about the model and km's that it was the starter - it had to be reconditioned. I pulled it and replaced with a recon unit they couriered to me and happiness since then.

R1600 later I was on my merry way again. I could not afford having the car stand still too long.

macjohnw - I also checked battery, glow plugs, change coolant sensor, EGR has been deleted. I also think it is just the starter thats left.

from what I found when opening mine the starter is extremely robust.

If it fails it's either the brushes that are worn down completely which can be renewed by a sparky for less R100 (provided you strip and take to him the brush assembly)

Or there's gunk on the brushes/solenoid contact points.

Other than the gunk and moderate wear on the brushes my starters mechanical condition looked almost new. Hardly any wear on the bendix or armature brush contacts.

Marius, it is interesting that it says "Chrysler Corporation" on that starter. Do you know whether it is original?

Of course, Mitsu and Chrysler have cooperated very often on several automotive projects over time. Remember the Chrysler Colt from the seventies, Gen 1 Pajeros sold in the USA as Dodge Raiders and the rebadged Dodge Dakota sold in the USA as the Mitsubishi Raider (see pic below).