This will be a question more for the darksiders. My 53 has a sbc. It has been switched to 12v by PO. WHen I push the button I am getting a loud grinding type noise. Sometimes it is right away and other times the starter engages starts to turn the motor over but then I hear the noise. Has my starter gone bad again or is it a bad starter button or bad ground? I put in a new starter because my old headers was real close to it and was told it got too hot. My shorties are not close.

 

Sounds like a bad Bendix drive, it has a sprag clutch that can fail.

 

I had lots of starting issues with my flathead. It was a 6 volt starter with a 12 volt system. I broke the spring a couple of times, too much torque on a 6 volt starter on a 12 volt system. once I also had a bad starter relay ground.I bought the Flathead Ford Mini High Torque Gear Reduction Starter. It doesn't need the stating relay. It works great and I'm really happy with it.Paul

 

is the drive clearance good? if it is off it can make a grinding noise when engaged.

 

Shims, the ones that came in the starter box, (and the instruction sheet), you need both!

My smiles thing is broken, working on it, so for now ....(smile).

 

Someone come in on this. If I remember correctly, didn't many of these old engines have a metal plate used as a heat shield for the starter? chuck

 

Heat sheild? what motor do you have? with the wrap around exgaust there would be a need for heat shield. should there be? ita question within the statement

 

had this issue many times with the dirt cars , all pretty much exclusively that other brand { cheaper to build and everyone has one in the backyard } save for a couple of fords . most of the time it's shims . you can get them to shim it up and should clear the problem up . could also as noted earlier be a bad bendix . i did have one very weird occurence once on a tow vehicle i bought CHEAP , also that brand . it started grinding , then occasionally a clunking , couldna find a thing wrong with the starter . well one day when it was fired up to go to the track it made a horrible noise from the starter then a lot of banging, when we later took it apart the dain flexplate had broken in the center and had allowed it to move around into the starter , and eventually broke all the way at this time .......... weirdest thing i'd ever seen .

 

I replaced the starter about three months back. It has worked fine without the shims up to now. I replaced it when I changed the headers. The ones that were on it had one of the tubes almost touching the starter. The shorties I put on it has more clearance. THe collecter is in front of the starter with about two to three inches. Is it possible the starter is still getting too hot? I thinking I may need to put some kind of shield on it.

 

uh huh , good old heat soak , and it will kill it quickly . make it hard to start too amongst other things . i ran a heat sheild on all the dirt cars and every c-v- i had with headers just for the sake of it . they aren't much and you can buy 'em for the bellybutton anywhere .....

 

I had a similar problem with my ’56 F100 that had a Hi-Performance (hi-compression) SBC and headers.

I put a standard rebuilt starter motor from Advance Auto in it and it lasted a few months. When the engine got hot, the solenoid would whine but not engage; no grinding sound.

I ended up putting a high-torque starter motor from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1>Summit</st1> Racing</st1:city> in it. It solved the starting problem without the need for a heat shield.

 

I added a couple of pictures to my gallery showing the header and the starter. Not sure if I took a good enough to tell how close it is. They are under Power steering

 

Maybe you should try giving some of the medacation thats use to stop rejection in transplants.

 

Took the starter off today and took it to O'Reilly's to have it checked. Everything checked ok. I put in back on and put a grounding strap on it from the block to the frame since it was missing one. The first time I fired it up, it did not make the ugly noise and started right up. Will try again later or in the morning to see what it does. Hopefully the problem is fixed. Thanks for all your comments.