A couple months ago I had to have my truck flatbedded after getting stranded on the road in the rain. Instead of bringing it home ( I usually do all my own work) I had it dropped off at the Ford Dealer next to my job. I had just got the truck and wasn't very familiar with it or how to diagnose the issue. It turned out to be the CPS and was under recall so I lucked out and only had to pay $60 for the flatbed. Due to all the cranking the starter began to fail so I had the Ford Dealer put in a new starter for me. $250 I thought installed wasn't bad at all. Anyway after a week I go to crank the truck over and I just get "Ziiiiing" like the starter is turning over but the plunger is not moving forward to engage with the flywheel. It was intermittent so I got under there and looked at the new starter and tightened all the mounting bolts and the problem persisted. I brought it back this past Monday because it's under warranty and they installed another starter, later that day the same thing again. It's back at the dealer this morning. They inspected the teeth on the flywheel and said they are fine. Why are these starters not engaging with the flywheel? Are the starters they use just poor quality. I saw a tag on the first one that said "Made In China" and they claim the starter that was installed Monday was a remanned Motorcraft Starter. Has anyone else experienced a problem like this? I'm wondering if it could possibly be the wiring but when it cranks it works perfect and cranks super strong. it never did this with the original starter before I brought it in there. I really hate having anyone else touch my stuff.

 

I think i remember reading somewhere that the starters between autos and manual are different, maybe someone can confirm this

 

Not on the 7.3 , they use the same starter.

 

If the teeth on the flexplate are indeed fine, it's almost got to be junk starters. Tell them to put a NEW 2 bolt starter in for a 7.3 superduty, or get it out of there and do it yourself.

 

Dealer should NOT be installing "Made in China" starters. If they don't have an OEM starter to install, they should notify you before starting (no pun intended) the work. As said above, an SD two-bolt gear-reduction starter is a better option, but I suspect the dealer will only continue to swap in China-made cr@p starters on the warranty.

You could, just for S&G, express extreme displeasure at their continued practice of installing junk starters, and demand that the $250 be credited toward the purchase of an SD starter, which you could install yourself. They might just bite, just to get you out of their hair.

 

My truck came with one of the newer SD starters when I bought it that happened to crap out on me about 5 years ago with my trailer in tow heading out camping. I smacked it with a hammer and limped it to the closest O'Reilly's that had a starter for the 7.3 in stock.

I was stuck with whatever they had available, which was their house brand "new" original style starter, swapped it out in their parking lot, and haven't had any issues since. I hated giving up the SD starter, but I didn't have much choice at the time, and haven't had any issues with the replacement. Funny thing is the previous owner gave me the original starter when I bought the truck that's still sitting on a shelf in the garage. I sure wish I had it with me when the SD one gave up!

 

When I had my 97' I replaced mine with a reman from Napa. It worked fine.

But on a different truck that needed an alternator it took three of the remans before I got one that worked. I think when buying re-manufactured stuff it's a crap shoot, some work and some don't.