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My air starter grenaded on a CAT 3406 outside Tulsa last Tuesday
The housing cracked right down the middle and sent shrapnel into the flywheel housing, has anyone else had a Bendix fail like that on an old engine?
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rubys8028d agoTop Commenter
Bet your wallet's feeling lighter. That's the old style Bendix with the aluminum housing right? They had a bad batch around the early 2000s where the casting had porosity issues. Heat cycling from the exhaust manifold right next to it made those weak spots crack out like an egg. Check your starter drive gear too, if it grabbed the ring gear wrong it might have jammed and put that side load on the housing. You'll want to swap to the steel housing version if you can find one, they're heavier but won't grenade like that again.
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rubys8027d agoTop Commenter
Jeez, that's brutal. Never seen one just crumble like that from heat cycling.
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ward.jamie28d ago
Wait, wait. Porosity issues in the casting? Like the metal was full of tiny holes and it just crumbled under heat? That's wild, I've never heard of that happening with a starter housing before. Figured they'd just crack from impact or something.
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