hey guys, I made a post a while back regarding my starter problems. So I'll quickly recap

I have a Fidanza Aluminum Flywheel (153 tooth, SBC), and a High Torq mini-starter (I'm sure it's the POWERMASTER brand).

Got the car back together in early May. For the first couple of weeks, the car started fine. There were some hard starts, but everything was good.

couple of weeks go by, and when I start the car, I hear a loud "CRACK!", and the engine stops cranking. I try to start the car again, and nothing cranks.. I can only hear the sound of a loud solenoid (which I assume to be the starter) engaging as I turn the key. I go under the car to inspect, and find nothing out of the ordinary. The next day, the car starts up fine.

As the days go by, the incident repeats itself a couple of more times, so I add a shim. After adding a shim, the problem appears to have been solved.

A few days later as I'm leaving a home hardware store, the problem comes back to haunt me. But this time, it makes a "THUD!" instead of a "CRACK!". Eventually, I got the car started, and drove it home. Once I came home, I started the car about 10-15 times back to back with NO PROBLEMS at all. I posted a thread online, and took notes of the advice given to me. Once again, I crawl under the car, and add ANOTHER shim while inspecting the mounting surface of the starter on the engine block.. everything looked fine. Some of the teeth on the flywheel looked a little bit chipped (VERY LITTLE) on the tips.

The problem then starts to present itself almost everytime that I go to start the car.

Last week, the problem "evolves". I start the car, and it fires right up. HOWEVER, this time, I can hear a "rattling" sound that gets faster as I revved it up a few hundred rpm (out of curiousity). I shut off the car, and start the car again.. and I get the SAME result; a "rattling" sound that gets faster as I rev it a little. So now, I figure that the flywheel teeth are somehow interfering with the starter..

I'm getting fed up with this BS.. and I'm really hoping that some of you guys will be able to help me out here. I'm sorry for the long post. But as you can see, this has been a puzzling experience for me. thanks in advance for your patience.

 

Sounds rather like your starter is taking early retirement....

 

I really hope it is the starter, and not the flywheel (I'm sure it's the starter). THing is, the starter is brand spankin' new... and of all the receipt that I lose, it's the starter..

 

Did you buy the correct starter for the number of teeth on the Flywheel???

 

DJP: good point... I went to the speed shop and dealt with the counter person whom I (almost) normally dealt with, so I just took his word for it. I assumed (I won't deny that I'm a newbie)that all SBC starters would be the same..

 

The difference in the starters is so enormous compared to the depth of the teeth that there's no possible way to make that mistake. The difference in the location of the starter shaft is 5/8", while the depth of the teeth is less than ¼". So either it would be the large flywheel and the starter for the small one in which case the starter wouldn't even install because the starter shaft would be trying to stick through the middle of the flywheel; or it would be the small flywheel and the starter for the large one, in which case the starter would be 3/8" - ½" away from the flywheel. Neither one is close enough that the starter would work at all, and in the one case, it wouldn't even install.

The starter is defective, pure and simple. Get a quality min-starter instead of that cheap one, maybe it will last longer.

 

RB83L69: The reason why I didn't immediately look to the starter being the problem is that I also suspected that there might have been a broken tooth off the flywheel, and also because my friend has the same starter (or at least it seemed to be the same). But for all the symptoms that I've encountered (especially the "rattling"), I realized that a broken tooth couldn't have been the culprit, and that it has to be the starter. I was also mainly puzzled as to why the car started fine in the beginning and when I started it back to back 10-15 times.

Yes, I agree with everyone now, that it has to be it. Besides, I have "Murphy's Law" working for me on this one; of all the receipts that I have kept, the receipt for the starter is missing.

thanks for the input guys!

 

I'd venture a guess that your flywheel has broken, probably around the mounting bolts, and has enough slack in it so that the outer edge (where the teeth are) is 'wobbling' as it rotates. This would cause the starter drive to not be able to engage the teeth if the flywheel happened to stop at a spot where it was on the outward portion of it's eccentric rotation. If any of that made sense..

Pete

 

how would I be able to check that? I was under the car today and removed the mini starter. Out of curiousity, I did try my best to wobble the flywheel, but it felt quite solid.

but I'm 99.999% sure it is the starter, cause if the flywheel was wobbling, I'd feel the car vibrating as a result.