D2 starter pinion

Well guys my saga continues. But I’m making progress. I took the starter pinion out to look for the broken tooth from the mag gear. The 3 of the 4 bolts were gone from the gear and sleeve assembly and the everything was loose. So 2 questions. First. Is there a way to see in the housing to find the bolts and will they hurt anything if left in there. And how much wear is acceptable on the latches? Sorry 3 questions.


I have parts ordered for the pony. The injection pump is off because the pumps were seized not letting the rack move. I ordered a kit for the carb. Hoping for no more surprises.

From that angle, the wear looks ok. I found on my pinion that the problem was a weak and mangled latch spring. $10 later and I'm in good shape now. It's also worth buying new latch sleeve bolts (the four) and new locking tabs (preferred instead of the old wire locking method apparently). The other thing you have to verify is that the latch "capture bolt" (can't remember its correct name but the bolt whose head the latches latch on to) is correctly oriented so that the latches have a decent bite. I also found that if the latches landed on the spline, they were also limited in how much purchase they got on the bolt head.