1984 F250, 351W. I just replaced my starter a couple of weeks ago, and my battery also. Occasionally, when cranking, the starter spins but does not engage the teeth on the flywheel (There is an awful screeching noise when this happens). At other times, the starter will be very slow to turn over, but begins to quicken and after a couple of seconds, will get up to speed and start the engine. What would cause this to happen.

 

I would take the starter back and get another one.

 

the old starter was doing the same thing before it bought the farm.........i thought that with the new starter doing the same thing, there must be a different problem. I checked the ground from the battery, and it is secure. I believe thats what killed the last battery.

 

Sounds like you have some bad teeth on the ring gear.

 

teeth are all there........and no cavities too!

 

Manual & auto trucks have different starters - I've just been going through this getting parts for a trans. change.

It could be you don't have the right one

 

possible i suppose, but the new one looked just like the old one, and the old one did the same thing.......occassionally

 

I mean the original may not have been correct either - maybe a flywheel or starter change took place sometime in the past

 

now I see, and knowing where this truck has been, that is very possible regarding the flywheel.What about the occasional slow turnover of the starter? Sometimes the starter engages the flywheel, but it does not spin right away. Makes you feel like the nattery might be dead. If you keep the ignition engaged, the starter will start to spin slowly, and then kick in fully, and the engine will turn over and start. Again, the old starter did this too, and it does not happen all the time. Most times the engine turns over strong and starts immediately.

 

I think the poor engaging on the ring-gear is putting extra side load on the pinion making it slow winding, then with a couple of revolutions that alignment improves, but it's probably still only driving on half the tooth width