2014 800 electric starter gear will not engage just spins

[gofast240]

Hi, had this happen a couple weeks ago too. but not last weekend. then again today it would not start. very intermittent. starter just spins and does not engage the gear. the little plastic clip is missing from my emerg rope so its a pain to start by rope. but as soon as I pull it over a couple times the starter gear will engage. Do I just need to take apart the bendix and clean it or replace something? Thanks for the help.

 

[markoo]

Could be dirty starter drive, but could also be low voltage. Check battery. A weak battery won't spin starter fast enough to engage it.

 

[snopro]

Exact same thing this year when I tried to fire up my T3 after sitting all summer. Was the battery. Mine was NFG after 1 year.

 

[Ramjet15x]

Sometimes the starter gets full of belt and exhaust debris, this year I have pulled three separate starters apart, one for only working sporadically, one for not firing the bendix and one for the bendix partially extending during normal operation and touching ring gear at about 6500 rpm. The first two I cleaned the internals with contact cleaner and put back together, the last I also cleaned and put in a new bendix kit as the spring was weak.
All had one of the o-rings bulged out and had an oily dust film on all internal surfaces, I was amazed how much there was inside.

 

[gofast240]

awesome, thanks for the info, just heading to the shop to clean it up, battery voltage is 12.89, so that may be part of it too.