After starting several times with a new starter, I noticed that some damage was evident on the starter ring gear. Please explain?
Incorrect pitch on starter drive (Bendix) or incorrect pitch on ring gear part of the engine installation. On Lycoming engines there are two different starter ring gears. One has 122 teeth (10/12 pitch) and the other has 149 teeth (12/14 pitch). The shape of the teeth can also identify them. The 122-tooth have squared-off valleys between the teeth and the 149-tooth have rounded valleys between the teeth. Of course to be certain, count the teeth. The starter drive gear (Bendix) must match the starter ring gear or damage will occur by wearing down the teeth on the ring gear. The 122-tooth ring-gears were mostly on early Lycoming powered airplanes. Later aircraft were manufactured with 149-tooth ring gears. However, this only remains true if the engine or the ring gear has never been changed. Sometimes the engine or even the ring gear has been changed to the later 149 tooth version. Diametral pitch pertains to the number of teeth per inch of gear diameter. The first number indicates the n
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