Hey all,

Recently I ordered a starter brush replacement kit since my starter motor was acting up, and on inspection my brushed were wore down to nothing. I ordered this kit: https://www.euromotoelectrics.com/Starter-repair-kit-for-Denso-Starter-BMW-K-p/bmw-strk007tk.htm which comes with a series of other seals and parts that I decided to diligently replace at the same time. Unfortunately, I just can't figure out how to get that darn oil seal back in place! 

With parts like the oil/water pump I know there are specialty tools used to press these suckers in, and some people have posted videos using sockets, etc. to push the seal into the housing. I've been carefully trying to tamp the inner part of the seal with 12mm and 13mm sockets but it seems like I am missing something here. Anyone have experience doing this seal replacement and have any tips for insertion process?

Thanks all.

I have never done this job before, but from looking at how the starter goes together I would get a bolt that is smaller in diameter than the starter shaft.  I don't want it to touch the lips of the seal.

With two fender washers and a nut I would make a press that would push the seal into the housing as I turn the nut.

I hope this makes sense.

Please post a couple of clear photos showing the parts and the situation. MaxBMW's part fiche seems to show the seal and cover under one part number.

Laitch wrote:Please post a couple of clear photos showing the parts and the situation. MaxBMW's part fiche seems to show the seal and cover under one part number.

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A bit odd with the formatting. 
I could only make out "Asahi, Japan 14" out of the text on the seal itself. Seems like basically it should fold it's inner lip into the shaft head. When I peeled the old seal off, it had basically welded into the seal as they  tend to do, but text was readable over the copper-ish portion of the shaft head as seen in the photo. It does not completely fit in the hole of the shaft head, in fact the inner hole of the seal is an identical diameter of the shaft head hole. Typically, when I read other threads about seals that BMW uses, there are specific tools that help the lip form around portions like this, as it is with the oil/water pump, but this is odd. I am not sure if the euromotoelectrics kit is off (unlikely) or this is a serious case of user error (very likely). 

The motor needed brushes and I gave it seals as well. As they say, if it ain't broke...

vttownie wrote:When I peeled the old seal off, it had basically welded into the seal as they  tend to do, . . .

I don't understand what you're try to convey in the extract above, but I'm getting the sense that you are grasping the significance of the If it ain't broke maxim.   At the end of your process, it sure doesn't look like what came in the package. Maybe that's a trick of photo perspective.

Explain exactly how you approached assembling the seal into position, e.g., with the starter cover unattached, with the cover attached, with the seal lubricated, the orientation of the seal's raised portion, and so on.

Laitch wrote:

vttownie wrote:When I peeled the old seal off, it had basically welded into the seal as they  tend to do, . . .

I don't understand what you're try to convey in the extract above, but I'm getting the sense that you are grasping the significance of the If it ain't broke maxim.   At the end of your process, it sure doesn't look like what came in the package. Maybe that's a trick of photo perspective.

Explain exactly how you approached assembling the seal into position, e.g., with the starter cover unattached, with the cover attached, with the seal lubricated, the orientation of the seal's raised portion, and so on.

After removing the cover and cleaning the old seal off of it, I started with a 14mm socket placed over the seal and tamping with a mallet to see if it would catch onto the metal. I moved onto smaller sockets to see if it would push the inside lip of the seal in enough to catch the metal, but that may have just damaged the rubber seal. After soaking for a few hours in oil, the seal was placed on that copper-ish portion text-side towards me, as the old seal was, and it fit perfectly into the groove. But I couldn't find a way to tamp or press it properly onto the cover.

Thankfully I have a spare starter motor with an old, non-deformed seal on it's cover, so I can use that with the new brushes in the meantime while I think about this seal procedure.

Feeling a little silly about this right now but I will swallow my pride and post anyways.

The copper-ish ring belongs to the old seal. Somehow I thought it was part of the housing but it was just the metal ring that runs inside of the seal, as shown in this image from the NOK website:



And this is the housing with the metal bit removed. I just popped it out with a screwdriver, using it like a lever. Inserting the seal is much, much easier after this point. I just tamped it in with a socket. This seal is also used in the oil/water pump and if I had done that procedure myself I would have known that... Oh well. 

After putting it back in the bike, with a fully charged battery, I attempted to start and nothing budged. Then a ridiculous amount of smoke poured out of the starter relay box and the wires to ground melted. There's plenty of threads about this issue so I'm sure I can start off there but it's a certain kind of feeling to get over a roadblock only to find another hill ahead. At least the rides I had this season were nice!

Thanks again all.

It sounds like you didn't get the insulators around the hot wire terminal on the starter right and you have a short circuit from the 12v to the case of the starter motor.  That would take the power from the battery straight to ground.