I'm continually having starter issues. First time this happened it turned out the starter was loose. I brought it to my mechanic and asked him to fix it however necessary. He "rebuilt" the starter and replaced it. It started fine but was noisy. The bolts must have loosened again and I was back to having problems. I put a nut and bolt through and the starter and it hasn't loosened up but now won't start. It sounds as if I lost a tooth/ teeth on the pinion or flex plate.*


Sooooo my question is this. If I replace the flex plate and rebuild or replace the starter motor do you think this will eliminate the problem? Or could something like the crank shaft be causing one of the two to become out of whack. I have heard other old fords of this generation start and they aren't loud so I know there is something up with the starter/flex plate. I just don't want to have to go through all the work of replacing a flex plate and then have another issue if It can be fixed now.*

1984 f-150, 4x4, 5.0 v8
Thanks!*

 

Are you the original owner of this truck, and/or do you know it history and what has been replaced/modified over the years? Have you actually looked at your flywheel/flexplate and starter motor Bendix?

It's impossible for anybody reading this on an Internet forum to be able to say if replacing this or that part will eliminate the problem, just can't be done. If the starter keeps loosening up, you might use thread locker assuming the castings aren't cracked and/or damaged somehow.

I have never heard of a nut and bolt combination on a starter motor, sounds hillbilly-ish to me.

You say the starter motor turns but apparently doesn't engage with the flexplate, correct?

 

Yes the starter is turning and not engaging the flex plate. I don't think it's the bendix as the starter was rebuilt. I'm a probably the 10th owner (I'm being facetious). When I got the truck there was a flex plate in the bed but I'm not sure if that was from the junkyard or came off the truck. I got it from Craig's list so i dont know the history. I'm hoping that by replacing the flywheel AND starter as a pair it'll repair the problem I just dont want to do all that work and find out something else could be the cause.

I bolted the starter in with nuts and bolts because some previous owner/mechanic stripped the threads in the transmission case. It's fine bolted in and albeit hilly-billyish (or hill-williamish as a hill-billy would probably have used duct tape or wire to hold it in LOL).

Thanks for any insight!

 

I am just gowing to throw an idea out there as I have no clue, but as a mechanic in the Army I run into simular issues. 9 times out of 10 it is caused because someone did not put the spacers back in. Perhaps your truck is supposed to have a spacer in it as well.

There are some places you can take your starter into to have it load tested. I believe Auto Zone is one of the places that offer this, but I can't swear to it.

 

If the starter drive is not engaging the flexplate, it could be the drive itself, the teeth on the flexplate, or both. Just because the starter was rebuilt, doesn't mean everything is right with it. New parts do not mean good parts. Sad, but true.
If the starter(s) have always made odd noises while starting the engine, then the flexplate is certainly a good suspect.
Only way to know for sure, drop the starter, and check it out. While it's out, rotate the engine slowly with a socket and breaker bar on the front of the crank, while inspecting the teeth on the flexplate. If it looks bad in 1 spot, it will likely look about the same in 3 (6cyl) or 4 (V8) spots. Replacement would be a good idea.

 

Might be the wrong starter for the application.ie:wrong tooth count.Or it might be broken or worn teeth.Remove(the starter) and inspect starter and the entire flexplate.Also count the number of teeth on both.When I was shopping for my 460 starter tooth count was different for specific combos.

 

Also, the auto starter drive reaches 5/16" deeper than the manual starter drive, to engage properly.
Maybe you have a manual version?

 

The starter always worked just was noisy (as in metal grinding noise). I at first thought it was a shim until I found out ford doesn't use a shim the way a GM starter uses a shim. I know they have shims avail but they're not used or installed in the same manner. I guess I'll start with a new flex plate and a new/rebuilt starter. the flex plate must have missing teeth or an out of round pattern that is messing with the pinion on the starter. I'm jhoping this is the issue. But what would cause that issue to start in the first place? Maybe someone did use the wrong starter or flex plate and it wore something incorrectly. I'll find out more when I can Get the starter and torque converter down to inspect. Thanks for all the info so far! Gas engine fords are new to me so I have a small learning curve to get over!

 

My friend's old 80 F100 had a cracked bellhousing. That thing ate up starters and flexplates like crazy till we found the crack.

 

You should do a visual inspection of the flex plate before you remove it.Simply rotate it by hand and check the teeth as well as checking for warpage.It's a big job to remove the flex plate.My bet is the wrong starter as Ken stated there is a difference in engagement depth from standard to auto trans.

 

I agree on the visual inspection before taking stuff apart; coming to conclusions based only on symptoms is never a good idea.

Somebody rep big vann for me, I need to spread the love.

 

How do I determine which starter is which?

I dropped the starter yesterday and oddly enough the flexplate and starter look as of nothing is broken. WTF! That doesn't mean something is wrong it's just not as obvious of a problem as I'd hope for. Anyway to tell which starter is which? Would adding shim help?

 

I was doing a google search and found this PDF. Real nice write up on the starter differences. I definitely have an auto starter according to his pictures.

http://www.bcbroncos.com/ford%20starters.pdf

 

Did he rebuild your starter? Or did he do what most shops do, buy a rebuilt starter from an autoparts store?

It's a lot quicker and far less labor intensive to install a rebuilt starter, than it is to take the original apart and "rebuild" it.

There are two different 5.0L starters, one for a M/T, one for a A/T. I suspect the "brain trust" wasn't paying attention, installed an M/T starter.

And btw, there's a law in the US that says if rebuilt/remanufactured parts are installed, they have to marked as such on 'customer pay' repair orders.

I'll betcha there isn't a peep about this on your repair order, even if your starter was rebuilt. Most members of the general public are unaware of laws governing auto parts.

 

The mechanic is a "friend" of mine and I trust he isn't screwing me over. I once wanted him to do a few things and look the truck over and he told me it would cost too much for him to do it and he knew i could do it. Business he could have easily taken from me.

Anyway starter says it was rebuilt. He prob put a new gear on it. I have the starter apart now. There is nothing wrong with the electric motor so I'll just replace the bendix. It looks as if just the pinion gear was replaced as the motor brushes and communtator look aged.

The PDF link I posted prior showe the two starters side by side. Pretty nice write up.

Now to track down my issue.

Thanks all!