We swapped the 3 sp manual on our 83 F100 for a C6. Two rebuilt starters have hung up engaged. One shorted out before I could disconnect the battery and the 2nd had 2 chipped teeth and it burred the flexplate.

I've ordered a new flexplate but I wonder if the 4.9 to C6 needs a full spacer plate (? I don;t know if that's the right name) or just a partial plate covering the lower part.

I suspect the starter gear is not engaging the flexplate deep enough although I don't know if 1/16 of an inch from the spacer would make much difference.

Any help from the forum would be greatly appreciated.

 

They ALL had that full spacer plate, each and every installation had them.

 

All Ford engines I have ever pulled had the large full plate that covered most of the bellhousing.

Go to autozone's site and plug in your truck and see what the part number for the starter is if it has a automatic. I believe it's a different number than a manual tranny starter.

 

Thanks, how do I measure to see if the starter is engaging properly?

 

Don't know. What starter are you using? Look for something missing or the wrong part. The starter should bolt up in 5 minutes and you can move on to bigger and better things, it should not be giving you all these problems.

 

I assume you got the correct starter for an automatic transmission?

 

The first rebuilt I got from a local auto parts store the second came from Rock Auto, both had the same dimensions and teeth on the bendix. I'll try the new flexplate, starter with the full spacer.

Thanks for the replies.

 

Were the two rebuilt starters the same as was being used when the truck still had the 3 speed manual transmission or did they have a different length snout?

 

They had the long snout.

BTW I have the 3 sp manual, clutch, pressure plate, flywheel etc if anyone in the forum is interested. They can have them for freight charges.

The truck only had 37K miles on it when we did the swap. 37K not 137 or 237!

 

4.9L with A/T uses a different starter than M/T

 

Thanks for all the replies, YES I was using the right starter with the long snout.

I replaced the flexplate and starter (pain to remove trans etc) and found a crack in the outside ring of the old flexplate.

Hopefully that would explain the starter binding.

 

The new flexplate, starter and solenoid didn't fix the problem. I found a starter repair shop that didn't try to rip me off. They said (from experience) that the problem was electrical and I needed to find a solenoid with copper contacts not the Chinese products. I paid about $ 10 more for a Standard solenoid and haven't had the problem since.