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1976 F-150. 360 motor. 4-Speed Manual.
I put this starter in a couple months ago. Gave me the spin and then start treatment a few times. Now spin, repeat, spin. And I see why.
Could this be the wrong starter for this motor/trans combo?
It seems to be only engaging the very tip.
Haven't checked the flywheel yet, but I thought I'd put these photos up to get any thoughts on what's going on.
@matthewq4b - What is a holding coil contact adjustment issue?
The conventional Ford starters (the ones without a solenoid on them) have a movable pole shoe that engages the starter drive. The moveable poleshoe is actuated and held in place by the holding coil.
On the movable pole shoe is an arm that opens a set of grounding contacts. When the grounding contacts are closed the field coils are grounded out preventing the starter/armature from spinning.
Normally the contacts do not open till just before the end of the starter drive engagement if this is not adjusted properly the starter will start to spin BEFORE the starter drive is engaged in the flywheel and you will chew up the starter drive teeth and damage the ring gear. IIRC the set up for the contact clearance with the pole shoe fully engaged/depressed is 0.050"
Very few reman and new offshore starters have the grounding contacts adjusted properly.
Without being there I can't say for sure what the problem is but almost always in a cases like this its the part that was installed. On my older vehicles, I've NEVER bought an over-the-counter starter as a replacement and have never had a problem. I have the original rebuilt by the local reputable shop. Might take an extra day but the quality is assured. Though NAPA is still typically better overall in quality than the other big box stores, they succumb to competitive pricing and to do that they have had to use suppliers that don't have the best quality control. For some reason starters and alternators seem to have the most issues but starters especially as I have heard of more problems than I can count. The warranties on these items give people a false sense of security.
Matthewq4b makes an excellent point. A friend with an 84 F-150 returned 3 starters to Autozone before getting one that would engage properly. He kept thinking he was doing something wrong or his flywheel was bad but undoubtedly the problem was as mentioned.
