Starter Grinding

[boltmoparm]

Hello New to the forum and square body trucks in general. I have always bought and drove Mopars, and this is only my second GM product.Anyways...

I bought a truck, the previous owner said the starter needed to be shimmed. I Shimmed it and it only made it worse. I then dropped the trans and replace the flywheel and starter. It was good for two starts and now the grinding is back. It is really bad and loud. I am not sure what steps to take next. Later today I am going to buy that brace that goes in front of the starter, if that does not work, I am all out of ideas. Thanks for any ideas or help.

 

[foamypirate]

I would go ahead and pull the solenoid off and manually extend the bendix into the flywheel to check the clearance. You should just be able to fit a heavy paperclip between the root of the flywheel gear, and the point of the starter gear tooth. That will tell you what your clearance looks like and whether or not you need to shim the starter.

 

[chevyk10]

I assume you didn't check the starter clearance when you had the bell housing off. How many tooth flywheel? Definitely need to check the clearance.


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[boltmoparm]

I did check the clearances and they were fine. When I replaced the fly wheel, I bought another starter to match them up. It did start fine the first couple of times, it would then start grinding after.

Anyways there is a problem with the holes where the starter bolts up. They are not stripped up, but give enough play where the starter hits it at an angle. I got a front bracket for it and new starter bolts, and that fixed it. I started it several times with no problems and hopefully this fix will work long term.

 

[bucket]

I would go ahead and pull the solenoid off and manually extend the bendix into the flywheel to check the clearance. You should just be able to fit a heavy paperclip between the root of the flywheel gear, and the point of the starter gear tooth. That will tell you what your clearance looks like and whether or not you need to shim the starter.

An easier method is just to check the clearance between the shaft and the flywheel by sicking an 1/8 inch drill bit between the two.

I did check the clearances and they were fine. When I replaced the fly wheel, I bought another starter to match them up. It did start fine the first couple of times, it would then start grinding after.

Anyways there is a problem with the holes where the starter bolts up. They are not stripped up, but give enough play where the starter hits it at an angle. I got a front bracket for it and new starter bolts, and that fixed it. I started it several times with no problems and hopefully this fix will work long term.

Good you got it figured out!

 

[boltmoparm]

Thanks Bucket,
it has been over a month and is still staring fine,so that was definitely the fix.

 

[Bessinger82]

What kind of bracket did you use? I’m having the exact same problem. Thanks