Hey Guys, I have been ghosting this forum for a while and have learned tons, I recently swapped a 240 straight 6 for a 352 in my 66 f100 and i am pumped with how great it turned out!
Unfortunatly, after running it for 2 days the starter wouldnt turn the motor over and gave me a free spinning sound. When i took the starter off i found that it had completely shredded the gears on the starter itself. I have not had a chance to look at the flywheel yet.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have.
Reece

 

Was it a new starter? If it's not the original or the correct replacement starter, the gears may not mesh properly and tear up the starter gear.

The flywheel is most likely okay, the starter gear is made of a softer metal so that it will get torn up instead of the flywheel.

I had an issue recently with a starter. It was 25 years old and the teeth were just plain worn down. Here's a pic of the teeth. Is this something like what you're looking at?

 

Pull the inspection cover off the bottom of the bell housing, check your flywheel gear (aka ring gear aka starter ring, flywheel ring). An engine will generally stop in three places around the flywheel, over and over. It is important you check all around the ring for wear or you will repeat your starter repair at some point when the engine stops on a bad area.

Make sure you are using the proper bolts on the starter, the threads have to go through the starter, engine block and thread into the bell housing. The bolts should be full threaded or make sure the non threaded part is not too long and sticks past the starter ears. No shims on the 352 that I know of. You can not trust the bolts the previous owner used.

If you have a bad flywheel ring, after you pull the tranny and inspect the flywheel, if the flywheel is good, you can heat the ring and it will drop off the flywheel, same with putting on a new one, heat it evenly on a steel plate then put it on the flywheel and tap it into place. The ring is heat shrink fit only, no welding. If you are cheap cheap cheap and the ring gear is only worn on one side..... you can turn it over vice replace it.

The 4 auto parts stores in my town are selling clutch kits, not individual parts..... you can order individual parts on line if you do not want a full kit.

Finally, if you have a manual tranny and pull it.... on a 352 with manual tranny, I found it is a lot easier to pull the tranny first then the bell housing. It is only 4 bolts holding the tranny to the bell housing.

Remove the cover in the cab first. Leave the rear cross member attached to the tranny until you get the tranny shaft completely free of the bell housing. You can easily drive the tranny and the cross member back with a large hammer, do it evenly on each side. Then lift the tranny off the cross member and lower the tranny leaving the cross member on the frame. I have not pulled an automatic so I can not comment on it.

Oh yeah, the upper left bolt on the bell housing has to come off and go on with the bell housing as there is no room for the bolt to go in after the housing is in place.

I just did this job a couple months ago on a 70 4x4 and again this past week on a 66 F20 2x4. It is a 1 day job if you have all the parts on hand and air tools.

good luck