ok a little background first. when the "new" motor went into my car a new starter went in with it at the same time (around april of this year). sometimes when I turned the key all I would get is a single "click" but if I turned the key again it would start; I figured it was probabbly just a loose connection and I would deal with it when school starts again in Aug. fast forward to today; I goto start my car and I hear this awful grinding/scraping sound when I turn the key, the first time it started, I figured "that was odd" so I went on my first errend. I goto start it a second time and the same thing happens only slightly worse; I figured "ok I only have one more place to go then I'll go home and park it". I go to start my car after my last errend and first there is a grinding then it started to sound like the starter teeth were barely meshing up to the flexplate and I had to crank it and crank it to get it to start. my question is this...could the starter have been knocked out of place or gotten loose or could the flexplate be so beat up there is no teeth on it? I find the second one hard to belive because it looked fine when the motor went in. I am very open to suggestions before I start wreching and trying to fix it.

 

Did you use the proper starter with the proper flexplate? i.e either 158 or 163 teeth? Check the bolts? Worn teeth on the motor? Etc. Check for mechanical things between the 2.

 

Jack up the car, climb under it, remove the plastic torque converter shield so you can actually see the starter and the teeth on the flexplate.

PUT ON SAFETY GOGGLES.

Have a friend turn the key to start the motor while you observe. Screwy stuff becomes blatantly obvious when you actually watch what's happening when the key is turned.

Yes, the teeth on the starter and/or flexplate can be torn to shreds or worn down to the point it won't engage properly. Yes, the starter can be loose. Yes, the starter housing's snout can be cracked or broken off (this is my own personal guess as to what is causeing the problem). All can cause problems like you describe.

 

ok I crawled under there, the starter looks fine (on the outside) I hooked up my starter button and watched the starter to see if anything unusual is happening. of course I couldn't see much because I can't get under there good enough to get to the dust cover because I only have the crappy little wal-mart jack and tiny little jackstands. but anyway the starter itself sounds fine because when I hit the button it sounded just like its supposed to; but at one point I heard a nice "clunk". I started it from inside the car and I still heard that grinding sound, I turned it off and let it sit of a couple min then tried it again; it started perfectly. wtf??? I guess I need to get underthere and take off that dust cover; anyone live in northern MN that can help me out here? (I'm too broke to go buy one).
anyway all opionions and thoughts and ideas are welcome