Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong...

 

Taking the washer off was hard as hell - when one can't fit in whole hand to grab that gear properly.
In the end I had to use tongue-and-groove pliers.

Also I ended up NOT putting the wavy washer back in.
At first I simply forgot to put it back, and the mechanism seemed to be working okay.
Then I noticed the abandoned wave washer laying on my desk so I put it in. And suddenly the mechanism visibly and audibly struggled.

Maybe it was because of this diameter being smaller on the new/brass gear:


Cheers

 

Could be the end cap not being used to keep things sorted.
What did Chris have to say about shipping you another?

 

Chris said he would gladly send one, adding it would be unnecessarily costly and slow tho, so instead he told me what kind of cap he uses: https://autofastenersandclips.com/pr...ner-205-height

While I couldn't find this exact kind of washer anywhere in Europe I am pretty sure I could use Starlock 6mm.


But I noticed the gear does not travel that far on the thread anyways.
While I was testing the gear for the first time, without the cap, I held the black plastic thing in place with my hand. When the mechanism stops (pedals furthest from the driver's seat) there was no push against my hand. And when I looked underneath the black piece there was still like 1 cm of thread spare.
In the end I put the original cap back in, even though I think it is useless.

I believe the wavy washer is more important, as it (IMO) prevents contact between the teeth and the black part.
So I want to find a washer (wavy or not) that actually fits the new gear. The original washer has the inner diameter too large, and I suspect it might be doing things as it dances around.

 

Look at the pictures, & use the stock one

 

That's what I did, and as I said, the whole thing sounded like it was about to die. I suspect the issue is there's nothing to keep the wavy washer concentric with the gear.
Tomorrow I'll take the gear off and check if maybe it's not symmetrical, in which case I'll try to flip it around and use the wavy washer again.

I know this is 6 years later, but I was wondering the same... It appears that the only thing that holds the wavy washer in place is the black thing with the blue "w", i.e. the purpose of the wavy washer is to prevent direct contact (and thus grinding) between the gear and the black plastic piece when moving the pedals towards the driver.

 

The grease holds the washer in place till the cover is replaced