Sometimes when I go to turn my key it seems like my starter is just spinning extremely fast, the engine doesn't catch and turn over. Once in a while it cranks, but lets off and freely spins. This goes on and on, like a slot machine, sometimes you get a lucky draw and it catches, cranks, and starts.

Now I have the dust cover off, exposing the flywheel, and it seems fine with all the teeth and what not. and the start has a rod extending out towards the flywheel, but no gear on the flywheel, the gear on the starter is maybe a 1/4" away from the flywheel set in the starter.

Is this normal where the gear is, I don't know what it should look like.

Thanks

 

sounds like a solonoid on the starter

 

If there is no gear (ring gear) on the flywheel, that coul be a problem, hope I read you wrong. On the other hand, if the starter whines on startup, it could have the wrong clearance, which means you need to shim it. I used two washers one time and it worked. Also, I dont know about the starterspinning freely, you mean it spins inside of itself, and doesnt engage. That is the solenoid, it engages that little hinge thing which pushes the starter gear outward. Hope this helps.

 

I think now that it is definatley the solenoid. Is it possible to just buy that or should I replace the starter and solenoid.

Thanks

 

It is not the solenoid; if that was bad, the motor wouldn't turn, because the solenoid wouldn't be sending power to it.

It is the piece that the little gear in the starter is part of. It includes a "one-way" drive, so that when the motor starts, the engine doesn't spin the starter to 12,000 RPM or whatever. That drive is worn out.

Get a whole starter. By the time that part fails the rest of the starter is old enough that there's no sense in speniding money on it and expecting it to last much longer.