i installed a new flywheel and starter and for some reason there not fitting right makes a hell of a noise when you try to start it any idea on what i should try

 

You might have a starter meant for a auto trans. truck on a manual trans. flywheel, or vise-versa.

 

Have the same problem on my ranger with new starter asked NAPA if it was the wrong starter and thay said that they were the same... 7 months later no teeth on the starter and they give me a new one thought that would fix it but still loud.

 

if you ever do fix it let me know what it was

 

checked it out not that lucky they both take the same starter

 

hay guys it was the starter bolts

 

Napa sold me one that did the exact same thing, I went to Baxter and got one and it's quieter, no grinding or anything, very nice. I was told to never buy anything re-built or refurbished from Napa- Guess I learned my lesson (there goes $80) they wouldn't give me a new one without the receipt and I am very bad at keeping those things.

 

Have never needed a receipt at our NAPA but they know me by name, got a BII for parts and it has a very quiet starter will see if it works the same in the ranger.

 

I wish you luck, buddy. (I would guess it would work)

 

They sell a spacer that gives u anywhere from 1/16 to 1/32 of space between starter assembly and where it normally sits. U can get these spacers in the HELP section of auto parts store or Napa sells one that sits flush with starter. This solved the loud UGLY noise. You will go through a few starters if you don't get that spacer. BTW, automatic and manual use the same starter.

 

My starter on the 87 B2 made horrible grinding noises on the flywheel, I noticed it had a lot of slop in the starter mounting holes (on the starter itself) I forced it as far towards the flywheel as possible, now it is as quiet as can be.

 

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one experiencing this problem. I'm a Ford parts salesman and am having just as a hard time figuring this out but after all of my research and reading your posts I've come to a conclusion. This is my scenario.

Just bought this 84 Ranger 4x4 2.8 with 165,000 miles. Did quite a few repairs but nothing in relation to the flywheel or starter. Drove it for about 2 months when the starter went out. No grinding, just stopped working. I put in 2 aftermarket starters (much cheaper than the OE, even for me). They both worked fine for about a day or two, then they started to grind with the flywheel and eventually stopped starting the truck all together. The starter bendix was doing its job it just stopped meshing with the flywheel. Thinking this was an aftermarket issue I decided to suck it up and buy the OE (re-manufactured, new is no longer available). Guess what, same exact outcome. I'm ruling out the starter as being the problem. As per the other posters i did confirm the starter for that vehicle IS the same for auto and manual transmissions. Whats happening is when its first installed the bendix does engage but apparently just barely. After just a few starts the bendix and starter start to grind because the starter and bendix are not completetly engaging the bendix gear wears just enough not to engage enough or not at all. So it must be a flywheel issue. Yes there is a spacer (part #D4ZZ 6434 A) that would push the flywheel out a tad, but I'm having my doubts this would be the issue since the problem would be the circumference of the flywheel and also since the spacer is installed in production, not something to fix an engaging issue, and its made of solid metal so I'm not sure why it would go bad....Its possible though. Before I confirm the spacer is still intact and in place ( a whole lot of work) I'm going to check which transmission I have. Now this would apply to manual transmissions only so if anyone out there has an automatic and is having the same issue let me know because my next guess would be moot. Ford put a Mitsubishi and a Mazda transmission in Rangers but the change doesn't take place until they go to the 2.9. Because the truck is aged and im sure has had many owners maybe at one point the transmission was changed and if a trans for the 2.9 say a late 85 was installed it would require a different flywheel. I now need to research and try and find out the specs on the 2 flywheels to see if the diameter is the same. Regardless my next line of attack is to see about having a starter actually manually rebuilt with a different bendix that would be just sllightly larger in diameter. There is about a 1/2 an inch clearance available in the nose cone of the starter and I only need about an 1/8 of an inch. Also the bell housings on the two transmissions are different but both mount to the engine fine causing maybe a little more confusion. A lot of headaches could have been avoided if I had the original defective starter, but like normal procedure it was turned in as a core. I'll have more info tomorrow.

 

I guess I missed this reply, what did changing the bolts do? Did it allow the mounting of the starter to fit tighter and more secure?

 

Has this problem been solved? What was starter bolts fix? I am having the same problem with my 88 Ranger 4x4 2.9/5 spd. Have replaced starter with new unit from NAPA and battery cables. Starter is grinding again and also the bendix is winding out sometimes and I have to rock the truck to get the starter to engage.