My dads 97 7.3 250 is having trouble starting. Just about every time you go to start the truck you hear the starter spin but not turn the motor over. I replaced the starter and same thing. takes 2-3-4 or more trys to get it started. sometimes i can put it in neutral or 1-2 back to park and it starts, sometimes turn the key on - off - on then it will start. seems totally random but its just about every time you goto start it. every now and then it starts right up

any ideas?
Shim the starter?
flywheel bad?
something in shifter/ignition/steering column
Ring gear

 

How did the ring gear look when you had the starter out? It sounds to me like you may have some teeth missing on the ring gear.

The other thing to do would be to make sure the new starter is connected correctly and all the electrical connections are good and clean, tight, etc. Incorrect or poor connection on the starter itself will cause low current to the solenoid and sometimes it will not throw the bendix out hard enough to engage the starter gear into the ring gear on the flywheel.

I take it the truck is an auto?

 

yes truck is an auto

 

the ring gear area i could see when replacing the starter looked ok, all connections are tight. i should test the strength with a multimeter

 

Make sure the electrical connection is good to the smallest stud on the solenoid of the starter. Believe me, I know all about spinning starters.

Edit: If that's good, then turn your flywheel 360 degrees and inspect all of the teeth.
Edit2: I forgot this at first, but I got really good pictures of my ring gear teeth, and I can post them if you want to compare.

 

Lol, Gotta admit, I thought of you as I typed that post! That's a lesson you won't soon forget.

 

Most definitely not. In case you're wondering, yes, I still feel like an idiot for screwing that up.

 

care to elaborate? incase the OP did the same thing

 

Well I didn't mean to make you feel like an idiot, I just thought of the issue you had. Those lessons learned the hard way are the lessons learned the best.

Let's just suffice it to say to be sure you have the connections all connected where they go and make sure they are good and tight and clean.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...starter-4.html

You can read through the whole thread for a good description of what was going on, but I linked to the last page, where I describe what I was doing wrong and how I fixed it.

 

Oh, it's no big deal. I feel like an idiot because I did something stupid, and then made myself look even dumber by posting all about it on the internet. At least hopefully I can be a shining example so that no one else here wires their starters wrong. Also, I now KNOW that I will never improperly wire a starter ever again.

 

Don't feel too stupid about it; you learned a valuable lesson that you shared with all of us, whether that was your intent or not.

 

Did you ever fix your problem, OP?