Starter Motor Woes

Starter Motor Woes

We stopped for a roadside pee and afterwards Big Bertha refused to start. Our toilet break lasted six days!!

There were signs of our impending problem that morning – when we were a looong way from civilisation and had parked a few kilometres off the road! Big Bertha really didn’t want to get going and grumbled when we tried to start. We were lucky that BB decided to spit the dummy later in the day.

Fortunately, Dave had pulled over for our ablutions and we were safely clear of the road. Nevertheless, warning triangles were deployed, which were effective and led to a number of kind people stopping over the six days.

Now for some technical discussion on our starter motor problem. When BB’s ignition key was turned, the starter motor pinion would engage and the motor would spin, but the engine would not turn. Dave extracted the starter motor, inspected the flywheel ring gear (ok) and tested the starter out of the truck. The pinion was being thrown, but the motor torque was not being transmitted to it. Dave then stripped the started motor to its component parts and the problem was revealed – the overrun clutch was knackered. This sits between the motor and pinion and its job is to only transmit torque from the motor to the pinion, and disengage when the engine starts, and drives the pinion at high speed, so as to prevent the starter motor over-speeding. The internal rollers were worn and the actuating springs broken. Thank you to Dave’s friend Richard (tech guru back in UK) and Matt (at the Exeter MAN garage) for help in diagnosing this issue.

Prognosis – we needed a new clutch or a whole new starter motor. We unfortunately broke down on Good Friday, meaning all businesses would be shut until the next Wednesday.

Our roadside visitors included Manuel – an Argentine biker who also owned an Iveco overland truck and Maria, who worked in a vehicle parts shop in the nearest town, Malargüe (64km distant). Manuel very kindly set about finding a starter motor for us. Although MAN has no presence in Argentina, VW trucks use MAN engines. However, the price was going to be eye-watering – about £2000 (compared to around £300 in the UK) and there would be a logistical delay in getting one (somewhere in Buenos Aires, 1,100km distant).

Meanwhile, Maria was checking out availability of the clutch in Malargüe. When the shops opened on Wednesday, Dave hitch-hiked into town (with a lovely Argentinian couple) arriving at Maria’s parts shop just before midday closing. Maria proceeded to take him home for lunch with her family before assigning him a room for his siesta.

At 4pm we returned to the parts shop, found the part and then Dave looked around town while the starter motor was rebuilt. Maria then very kindly drove Dave back to Big Bertha.

While this was all going on, Diego and Jose Luis, oil workers who travelled up and down the road every day, bought us bread and other provisions to keep us going. Numerous other people stopped to ask if we were OK, including three other overlanding trucks. It just goes to show that in this world of mainly upsetting news, the majority of people out there are very kind nice people.