Ok, I'm about knee deep in the middle of a clutch replacement, and I thought i'd freshen up the starter while it's out. It looked like a oil bomb went off on this thing, so I decided to crack it open to see what it looked like inside. Needless to say, it was a mess. After cleaning it, and before I reassemble it, I noticed there is some grease on this bearing.



I'm just wondering if I need to also regrease the inside of the case as well where the bearing is going to ride? If so, what kind do I use? The picture shows some existing grease on the flat side of that bearing, and it almost looks like dielectric grease, but i'm not sure.



Any ideas from you experts?

When I had my starter apart I noticed that bearing too. From memory mine was a sealed unit though (i.e. the bearings come pre-greased and then sealed with little orange dust covers inside the bearing run.)

I just lubed the end of the shaft with copper anti-seize compound and wacked it back together.

I might be wrong though, I'm sure one of the more experienced gurus will chime in <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

When I rebuilt mine I greased it where the shaft goes throught the case. Make sure you don't get grease on the brushes. I regreased the gear reduction part of the starter too. I sprayed down everything with brake cleaner first.

What kinda grease did you use?

I don't recomend using antiseize as a lube anywhere there are close tolerences such as bearings, bushings etc. Reason being is that the antiseize has metal particals in it that will cause abrasion. In the case of the starter bearing just use a lithium grease (wheel bearing grease) and don't over do it. Anti seize is not a lubricant but rather something to keep stationary items such as nuts and bolts from rusting together.