Hello, have a question about an old 83 ranger 4wd with a 2.3 4 speed we have and I’m not real knowledgeable on the smaller trucks. Starter went out and grabbed a new one at Autozone, we don’t use this truck much and it worked for a while and started grinding and ate the front half of the flywheel teeth in a place or two. Stuck a new flywheel and starter in and it zings and doesn’t engage a time or two before finally starting. So obviously I don’t want to damage the new flywheel. My question is, was there a difference in automatic and 4 speed starters? All the parts store say no and my local Ford dealer says yes. I know on my old 300 and 460 trucks, yes they are different. But can’t find much info on ranger 2.3’s. Ford said the correct part number for my vin is a obsolete E3TZ-11002-B . Anyone have any for sure knowledge on this or have ran into similar issues? Thanks

 

I googled that part number and found several sources. The A/T flex plate has 135 teeth and the M/T flywheel is listed as having 132 teeth. Search flywheels and flexplates for your engine and you will see the difference between a starter for M/T and A/T.

 

In case anyone stumbles across this searching for similar issues. After going through every starter box at multiple parts stores of the exact same part number, finally came across one with a longer nose cone. It’s about a 1/4” longer. So morale of the story, never turn in your core till you have your vehicle fixed, when it’s gone, it’s gone and you may not have the exact right part. Or just rebuild your original part and know if fits correctly.