Daze

OK heres the long story back in June the starter was making a whole bunch of grinding noises so I went and bought a new one only to find out as I went to change it that the bolts had backed out about 1/4" on the original. Once I tightened them up the starter worked fine so I took the new one back. 1 week later I could not get the starter to engage. You could hear it spinning but the gears on the starter were not engaging the flex plate. This time the bolts were still tight so I figured the actuator was damage the week before and replaced it with a reman autolite lifetime warranty starter. Worked fine until late Augest. Went to start up after running some errands and the starter would just spin and not engage the flex-plate just as the previous had. Knowing that some times they stick I taped it with a hammer as my daughter cranked the ignition but nothing changed so I walked to the auto-parts store, paid for a replacement with the idea of getting my money back after I changed it. 30 minutes later the job was done and I was back on the road. Went back to the auto-parts store and the monkey behind the counter decided to test the starter before giving my money back. Wouldn't you know it worked just fine. After much complaining from the parts monkey I had my money back. Now we are two months latter and you guesed it the starter spins but will not ingage the flexplat. This time I had the autoparts store replace it for a new one and I paid the difference. Here is the question. I have replaced tones of starters over the last 20 years and have never had this problem. Is there something in the start switch or solenoid that I am not aware of that could cause the actual starter to stick? Based on experience I would have thought that the starter I got back in June was bad if it hadn't been for the fact that it worked at the auto-parts place and then I had the same problem with the replacement today. Any ideas?

dodgestang

I would check for a current drain.

Starfury

Are you possibly missing teeth on the flexplate?

toolwench

You say it's spinning, but not actually engaging and you're other starter had been running with the bolts backed out?

Sounds to me like you wore off just enough of your flexplate that the starter can't reach it anymore. Or perhaps it wore off a tooth or two on the flexplate.

Pull the starter and have a look at the flexplate. The tooth ring should be the same thickness all the way to the ends of the teeth. If it is, turn the engine over with a wrench and look at all the teeth on the flexplate. If one's missing, that's probably where the starter won't engage. In my dad's old van, we used to keep a wrench around in case the starter would try to engage where the one tooth was missing.

Daze

It is definitely NOT the flexplate. I checked all the teeth after the original starter failed and they were fine. If it were a tooth issue than the problem would be an intermittent one, but the there were no issues at all starting up over the last two months and then today it completely quit engaging. Once I installed the new starter there was no problem with the teeth engaging.

toolwench

Maybe it's probably some sort of electrical problem like high resistance in the starter wire, a tired solenoid or something like that not triggering the pinion to shoot out far enough. Also, the pinion on your new starters might also have worn instead of the flexplate. They could be the wrong starters, too. I had a parts monkey give me two wrong ones (short pinions) in a row before getting me the right one. Also, check that the band around the starter is tight. It holds the retracting spring in place and if loose could cause the pinion not to retract or only partially shoot out. I had a "new" starter do that on me, too.

fastbackford351

Toolwench,

I love you.

toolwench

You just made my day!

Tony R

do you have your header too close to the starter. My f150 was too close and it would act up. Had to put a heat shield over it to keep it cooler.

andrewmp6

There right all i can think of is electrical problem heat soaking from the headers or wrong tooth one.