i got my 400 small block in my car, everything is hooked up...

cranked it over, it fired fine, ran nice, bla bla bla...

the starter had sounded a bit funny while cranking and sometimes would jam... today we go out, everything is ready for the first test drive... crank it over, and the starter jams again...

look under the car, and the little gear in the starter is stuck in the flywheel...

we looked everything over, went out in the back shop, grabbed another starter, pulled the solenoid thing off, and bolted it on...

we engaged the little gear by hand, and it got stuck in there...

took a lot of force to get it unstuck... we then put in 2 shims... same problem... still stuck....

any ideas???

 

Interesting. So after putting in 2 shims, it still does the same thing? How does the gear on the starter look? Is it all chewed up? How about the fly wheel? I wonder if it's an issue just with the starter itself.

Anybody else?

 

sounds like you put in the wrong flex plate for that starter that sucks.

 

ok, the 400 small block and 454 big blocks are externally balanced... both use the 165 or whatever tooth flywheel..

we went out in the shop and compared a 454 one and a 400 one... same thing... i have the correct flywheel for a 400 small block on there, and the starter is from autozone... its for a 1974 monte carlo with the 400 (thats what the codes on the block say the engine was in originally)

compared the starter from autozone with other cores in the shop and it is also the same (as far as we can tell...)

we put more shims on it and it jumps a tooth now and then, and makes lots of bad noises.... so its not in right there either...

it is definately starting to mess up the flywheel... too much more of it and ill have to replace it... the little gear in the starter is ok, but obviously not for long if it keeps up...

i think it may have a problem with the starter itself, so im going to put a used one on it we have laying around... and if it works autozone is gonna hear it from me for the bad starter, and the shifter cable that i bought there that was 1/2 inch too short, so it didnt fit...

hmm... i just need to calm down and keep teling myself "this engine will be a lot better than your stock 305 with about twice the power... it will be worth the trouble" kinda find that hard to believe some times....

 

tossed a used starter on today, it works now...

it was a defective new starter... straight from autozone....

 

good thing. that would of sucked if you had to swap out the flex plate/fly wheel (flex plate for auto fly wheel for stick for who don't know what the different is)

 

That's why I stopped buying things from AutoZone. Too many freakin' issues like that. You'd expect something to be built wityh quality and they never are. Crap, nothing but crap. Glad to hear you got it cleared up.

 

yeah... when this used one i grabbed out of a pile in the back shop dies, im getting a GM mini starter... (heard good things about them,...)

 

*hint* ..... Autozone sells "rebuilt" parts. CarQuest and Napa sell "remanufactured" parts. The difference? Rebuilt is replacing the individual pieces that are bad. Remanufacturing is a total overhaul of the complete assembly...whether the pieces are good or bad. Basically, a remanufactured part is as good as a new part....for much less the cost.