I bought a 76 vw kombi with subaru ea81 brumbi engine conversion about 6 years ago. In that time ive taken the engine out 4 or 5 times (for various reasons), and replaced the starter motor and the flywheel 3 times. The common occuring problem seems to be the meshing of the starter motor teeth and the teeth on the flywheel. The flywheel is from what i can remember, a subi flywheel with vw kombi ring gear that has been heat pressed onto it. Im not sure of the reason why the conversion wont take a subi flywheel with subi ring gear (im looking into that atm). I know that a vw kombi flywheel with vw ring gear is too thick and wont fit with the clutch and pressure plate - which are subi (not 100% have to check).

I replaced the starter motor approx 2 yrs ago with a very powerful starter, not bosch, i think it was universal. Also made an apaptor plate to fit it nicely to the flywheel and it was very tight and worked great for about a year while i was driving it

Just recently the starter isnt kicking the flywheel over and makes terrible crunching sounds (scaring the neighbours, and making small children run away , took it out to have a look and the same thing is happening again, the teeth on the flywheel are being shredded and the starter teeth are also shredded!

One opinon i have received was that the heat treatment has interfered with the strength of the ring gear causing it to be weaker so that eventually it will be shredded by the starter motor.

I would really, really appreciate any advice if anyone has had the same issues with ea81 kombi conversion. I am stuck with what to do - i like the way the engine runs, and ive made many adaptions like fitting two radiators into the engine bay and welding two extra air grills, but i might have to take it back to origional vw motor if cant fix this flywheel problem...

thanks
j

I got a old flywheel and the thing was out buy about 5mm and the starter never meshed in proper , once you added about two auto washer behind the flywheel the starter would work fine.

I eneded up buyNG a new one off of John S

I did that on the last starter/ ring gear replacment fix, i made a spacer plate for the starter and it sat perfectly, and worked brilliantly for a few months of driving. Then the ring gear just got shredded again.

But ive been trying to find info on why it keeps happening and its a common problem with adaptor plate conversions. As far as i know there is no way to use a complete subi flywheel with the adaptor plate conversion, you have to use a subi flywheel with vw ring gear and the heat tempering interferes with the strength of the ring gear. So, it will always loose out in the short or long term.