[madscientistii]

Hi Guys,

When I was removing the starter, something fell off that resembled a dry rotted gasket. I'm doubting this is clutch dust, but I guess its possible.

Has anyone noticed a gasket on the starter? This is where the starter mates with the bell housing of the tranny. Is this the 3-4mm gap between the tranny and the starter normal?

I checked with mazda and they said that there is no gasket part number for the starter.

The starter is mounted flush with the motor and installed correctly. See pics for gap.

Thanks.
2003 6i, MTX, 2.3L 4Cyl

 

[The Great NY]

The dealer is stupid. There is a gaskeet or better term dust shield gasket under the starter. Now I'm not entirely sure what dictates which car has them..but I have personally seen them appear on the 6. Not mine. But someone elses.

No clue where to get em ...I'm willing to bet it comes with the starter. Or it was something thrown in there to fix machining gaps of some sort.

Can you tell what kind of material it is? I'm sure you could get some gasket paper of proper thickness(a couple mm's thicker than said gap bewtween the starter and trans) and cut it out yourself.

Or...the easiest way...get a tube off silcone gasket maket and put it on like a rope and let sit till its tacky or hard enough not to come of on ur finger when you touch it. And bolt down the starter on top of it and let sit for a few hours or so to fully harden.

I haven't tried looking for the actual gasket tho. Try googling some stuff. If you can't find anything....reuse the old one or try the above

 

[madscientistii]

Thanks for the reply. That's what I thought too. I cant reuse the old gasket since it disintegrated, but some gasket maker is a good sugguestion.

Thanks!

 

[08mazdamike]

what did you do to resolve this problem , same thing happened to me i took my tranny off and this black seal fell into pieces