Ring gear - help!

[dougal9887]

I'm confused, even after reading previous posts, about the correct side of the tooth for the bevel. As I understand it, for an inertia starter, the bevel should be on the leading edge of the tooth. So, looking from the clutch side, the flywheel will be rotating anti-clockwise and the bevel should be on that leading edge.
I think this is what I have done, however after a few starts it appears that the other side of the tooth is where the wear is starting to take place.
I have laid the old ring gear beside the new for comparison. The bevel on the new ring appears to be on the same side as the old ring, but on the new ring the wear appears to be starting on the opposite side.

Old and new ring gear from the clutch side.

New ring gear wear marks

Have I got it right or wrong?

[Panda]

Hi Dougal, You are correct, the bevel should be facing to the rear of the car if you are still using a Lucas inertia starter. What is the problem, are you getting premature wear on the ring gear teeth? If so, the pinion on the starter may be worn, try to compare it with a new one. Better still, throw it away, fit a pre engaged starter and your worries should be over.
Alan P.

[Chancer]

Wrong pinion for the ring gear or vice versa for the pedants.

There seems to be lots of differing opinions on what is correct, some even say a 9 or a 10 tooth pinion can be used with one of the ring gears.

All I can say is if you do have the correct mesh the cranking should be virtually silent, with the wrong one there is lots of gnashing and slowing down/locking up like the battery is flat and of course the sort of damage that you are seeing to your ring gear.

If the damage is confined to two places 180? apart then its the wear that is caused when the engine fires and throws out the bendix.

[dougal9887]

Thanks for the replies.
The pinion is 9 tooth as originally fitted.
The cranking sound was normal.
I had to take the engine out again after it's first fire up due to a coolant leak from the rear core plug which stupidly I hadn't replaced. This was why I noticed the marks on the new ring gear.
The ring gear was fitted same way as the old one with the bevel on the leading edge of the tooth. The marks are on the trailing ie drive edge of the tooth and hence I was wondering if that is where the bevel should be.
I have since read that the ring gear bevel should face the pinion bevel, which it does. So it looks like the bevels are on the trailing face of both teeth and not the drive face as I sort of expected.
Seems all is well. (Apart from the marking!)
Dougal.

[rgh0]

The ring gear mark up quickly from the starter pinion with the original bendix inertia starter. Pre-engage starters were invented to solve this wear problem The photos look normal to me including the gear teeth starting to mark up from the engagement

cheers
Rohan

[dougal9887]

Ok. Thanks for the reassurance.
Dougal.