Got ready to take my truck (1950 f1) on it maiden voyage Sunday. I went to start it and the starter sounded like it was going to fall out. I think maybe the bendix? Not sure. Anyone know if the starter on the v8 is the same? Where can I find starter parts for my flat six? Thanks for any advice. Mike

 

From what I can remember the starters are the same for the 6 and the 8. Funny thing is the starters are slightly different from year to year. The entire unit will interchange but the cases can be slightly different. I had bad fields in the starter on my '49 so I pulled the starter from a '50 parts truck that had bad brushes. I thought I could exchange the outer case but couldn't. The end plates were different. I ended up tearing both of them apart and making one good one.

Any good parts store like NAPA should be able to either find a replacement starter or parts to rebuild it or suggest a good place to have your starter rebuilt. Places like Mac's has most of the parts to rebuild them.

First thing to do though is to check you have the bracket from the end of the starter to the oil pan installed. It's a little piece but important. It also common for the spring on the starter drive to break. Maybe the spring broke, it's a relatively easy fix. You should be able to find it at the places mentioned above.

 

Napa has them. I ordered mine through napa for my 226

 

Thanks Bob, I looked at my starter and it doesn't have the little bracket. Do you by chance have a picture of it that you could post so maybe I can make one. I changed over to 12 volts, using the original starter, can this cause the spring on the bendix to break? What can be done to prevent this from happening? Thanks for your help and I will try NAPA tomorrow.

 

Ksmith203, Do you have a part no. From NAPA?

 

I don't have a picture of it but it's a very simple bracket. A piece of 1/2"-3/4" flat stock attached to the top starter mounting bolt going to the nearest oil pan bolt. It just helps with the rear torque action of the starter.

Switching over to 12 volt shouldn't hurt the starter as long as you don't crank it for a long period of time, same would happen if it were 6 volt. The spring tends to break if for some reason the starter jams or gets over torqued while spinning the engine. I haven't had it happen to me for a long time. It's not a major fix if this happens to be your problem.

 

Thanks again Bob,
I hope to pull the starter next week to see what happened. Its NASCAR week at Texas, so no work on the truck, just a little R&R. I'm hoping it is just the bendix.

many thanks, Mike

 

I received my new bendix through Macs.
I tried using the "new style" enclosed spring bendix drive, but when I tried to reassemble the starter to the engine I found that the enclosed spring assembly wouldn't clear my flywheel, so I used the original "exposed spring" bendix drive.
I also had Macs send me new screws and the funky looking lockwashers to hold the bendix screws to the starter shaft.