Chewing up starters

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Apr 7, 2014 | 11:00 AM

soco

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Chewing up starters

Need some help guys ... '72 F-100 w/390 and 3 speed auto. Pulled the motor and trans to replace a broken pushrod a few weeks back. Went ahead and replaced a bunch of gaskets too while it was out. Accidentally cracked the bell housing putting the motor and trans back together (wasn't lined up, obviously). Anyways, it's back together and in the truck. Cranked it, noticed the oil pressure wasn't registering on the gauges and shut it off. Went to crank again and the motor on the starter just spins. Pulled the starter off and it was chewed up pretty bad. Could it be that the motor is no locked up b/c of lack of oil pressure and the starter can't fully turn it? Could it be the motor and trans are misaligned? I'm so angry, frustrated, overwhelmed right now and don't really know what to do. Thanks for any advice y'all can provide.

Edited to add: Replaced the flex plate too while I had it apart and the starter is (was) brand new as well.

Apr 7, 2014 | 12:33 PM

JEFFFAFA

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From: Phoenix, Az.

Quote:

Originally Posted by soco

Chances are if the engine is tied up now you would have heard it in the process of tieing up just before you shut it down. The idle would have slowed down as it was tieing up. But you can try to hand turn it to double check. You can use either the crankshaft Damper bolt (don't Gorilla this) or a blade screwdriver on the flexplate's teeth. Leverage against the block or bell housing. If the starter is chewed up you should have heard that happening also. The dowel pins back of the block line up the tranny to it. You sure you have the flex plate mounted with the correct side facing the block? As far as the oil pressure problem goes, what broke the pusrod?

Apr 7, 2014 | 01:27 PM

soco

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Not sure what broke the push rod in the first place, just that it was underpowered and when I pulled the valve covers off I saw it was broken. It didn't sound like it was slowing down, so maybe I got lucky. I did not replace the oil pump, but I did drop the pan and make sure the screen was cleared. I'm going to pick up an oil pump primer tool anyways and give that a shot to see if it will manually get the oil pressure up before I try to crank it again. I was thinking (guessing, really) that it may have heated up just enough with no/low oil pressure so that it wouldn't turn again while warm and that's what broke the starter ... which is why I want to prime it just in case.

Apr 7, 2014 | 03:40 PM

Rasputin53

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From: Garner NC

The starter is strong enough to move the truck from a stand still. I'd definitely try to turn it over by the crank bolt. It should move fairly easily and fight you on a compression stroke. It will 'relax' counter clock wise if you are on a compression stroke, but it will turn. If it's stuck, that's a whole different issue.