I was working later then I should have last night and began to make stupid errors.

When I removed the starter cover, a washer fell in between two gears and chipped a bit of the protective coating off of one of the gears. The chip is on the face of the gear, where it presses against the face of another gear as it spins. I'm worried that if I don't replace it, more of the coating will be scraped off and cause other problems.

I unfortunately didn't take any pictures, but I can clarify what I mean with this picture: http://imgur.com/VYZUKfT

So as the gears spin, the chip on gear A will eventually rub against the face of gear B. The chip is about 1/8" of an inch across. Do you think this will be an issue?

Thanks

 

If I am not mistaken, those are the gears that the starter uses to turn the engine over?
If so, they are always engaged, but only see load under starter use.
I doubt that a chipped face would cause the ceasing of the gears during operation and with the so little use of the starter the wear would be minor.

You could always replace down the road if you use the starter.... a lot.

 

Shave it down slightly with a safety razor so there is nothing to rub against the other gear

 

OK, I'm a bit confused...
The image I see doesn't look like any of the gears of the starter drive on my engine. Are those gears off of a KLX?
If those gears are from the idler drive then they only turn when the starter is running so the chance of wear would be pretty minimal.
Still confused tho.....

 

As a testament to how tired I was, here is the actual picture:



There are definitely no gears that could possible rub together. What I remembered as being a second gear is actually just the metal that holds the gear in place. The damage does not seem very severe to me and was probably actually damaged long ago.

What do you guys think?

 

Sorry GBAUTO, those weren't actually gears from a KLX. Just a random image I found online. I reassembled without thinking to take a photo, and didn't want to dissemble everything again as there is a somewhat worn gasket behind the starter cover.

Thanks

 

Thanks. I'm going to have a peak in a while to see if damage has spread. If so I'll replace it.