starter issue...

[rusty1988]

so recently when i start my truck it will first make a really horrible loud grinding gnashing type of sound. this seems to only happen on the first start of the day and will turn over fine on the second try, sometimes takes a third and then starts fine the rest of the day. it did this once or twice a few months ago and then quit until recently and now its happening more and more. otherwise the starter cranks good and strong. i checked the mounting bolts and they are tight as can be. i guess my question is is there any hope it is actually the starter or am i looking at a worn flywheel? any advice as to where to start looking would be much appreciated. thanks!

 

[rhkcommander]

should be an inspection cover at the bottom you can take off to glance at the flywheel, alot of people say theirs dont have them installed anyway (that i've talked to)

I'd check the wiring/batts too, if they dont get enough power they can sound aweful-maybe the vibrations are enough to make/break the connection somewhat

 

[Full Monte]

I'm wondering if the starter is spinning before it engages the teeth on the flywheel. It may be doing it on a spot on the flywheel where the teeth are damaged and engaging correctly where they aren't damaged. It would require looking at the teeth on the flywheel to see if there is damage anywhere. It might also be a starter/solenoid problem. Either a bad starter solenoid or a poor cable/damaged cable connection to the starter.

 

[The Warden]

I had this problem on my truck when I still had the T-19, and I've also had this problem on a couple of other vehicles. As I understand it, that's a common symptom of worn flywheel teeth. What's happening is, the starter isn't fully engaging the flywheel (due to the worn teeth) before cranking, and the starter gear ends up jumping off the flywheel...and you get that God-awful sound of the starter spinning without load while trying in vain to grab the flywheel.

As I recall, there are 4 places where the engine will stop in its rotation when shut down (corresponding to TDC), and so the flywheel teeth will be considerably more worn on those points than elsewhere. IIRC with proper heat application, you can get the ring gear off the flywheel and re-orient it 45 degrees to either side so that the starter can engage on fresh teeth. I haven't actually done it; I just lived with it until I did my trans and flywheel swap...but IIRC others have; might be worth doing a search?

Hope this helps some...good luck!

 

[icanfixall]

Actually these motors start and stop on three places around the flywheel or flexplate. If you have the heavy cast iron flexplate you can remove the starter gear and rotate it till you get to some good teeth on the gear. Or you can buy this gear and install it. Don't think you can just remove the oem gear and flip it over. These gears are beveled on the side that the starter ingages from. The other side isn't. If you have the thin stamped steel flexplate you can't just remove the gear because its welded on...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...0494436491&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

[rusty1988]

thanks for the responses guys i'll be trying to get to the bottom of this this weekend and i'll post back what i find...

 

[Guntherx]

If my truck sits for a few days, when I turn the key to start nothing happens. But if i hold it in for a few seconds it will kick over just fine and work from then on. teh switch under the dash is new. Are there 2 realys for the starter or just the one on the starter?

 

[The Warden]

If my truck sits for a few days, when I turn the key to start nothing happens. But if i hold it in for a few seconds it will kick over just fine and work from then on. teh switch under the dash is new. Are there 2 realys for the starter or just the one on the starter?

There are two solenoids...there's the one on the starter itself, and there's one on the passenger's side inner fender. Yours may be different, but mine's mounted on the side of the fender not too far from the battery.

FWIW my truck does the same thing...given that I'm not hearing any clicking from the starter, my first guess is the fender-mounted solenoid/relay's the problem, but I haven't looked too deeply into it; have too many other priorities at the moment...

 

[rusty1988]

i had that problem intermittently myself and when it wouldn't start i would jump the 2 large posts on the fender mounted solenoid and it would fire right up, narrowing the problem down to that solenoid. so i went out and got one but didn't get around to installing it and it never happened again
i never thought that it might be connected to the grinding problem i'm having now but is there a possibility