I've just learned I'm going to have to replace my starter for the 8th time since I bought the truck new in 89. Any ideas on what might be causing excessive starter wear? Standard F-150, 302.
Thank you.

 

I know of so many 80s trucks that eat starters like a 2 year-old does candy. I guarantee I cant count them all on one hand. All of them were with 302s and 351 windsors. Maybe if someone out there knows what the deal is they can help you and me out.

 

One more thing I've learned about this model is whenever performance goes down, the cure it to clean the fuel injectors - not by the $2.99 cleaners one dumps in the gas tank, but by actually cleaning the injectors the hard way.

 

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 16-May-00 AT 08:39 PM (EST)[/font][p]Yo,
I think this www site article has some answers.http://www.apra.org/publications/electrical/fordther.htm

here are some of the problems that are discussed:
The No Pull-In Problem-

A- The series or heavy winding coil at the hollow pole or Coil C is responsible for 95 percent of the pulling force on the plunger; the shunt coil, about five percent. Failure to pull-in can be caused by inadequate current through Coil C. This may be due to loose or dirty contacts or poor connections between Coil C and the battery post, Coil C and the upper contact point, or the lower contact point and the case. All of these connections must be very good, because of the extremely high current that they must handle.

B- Poor test set-up. Contact of test cables and clamps are no less important to plunger pull-in. Use only heavy copper cables with screw-clamp connections at the battery or converter power pack and clean copper spring-type clamps at the starter. Use a Ford-type solenoid or relay, somewhere in the positive test cable to prevent sparking and arcing at the starter itself. Replace this solenoid every 1,000 starters or so. The ideal test set-up would use a heavy-duty power converter with a variable voltage transformer on the 220 volt or input line. This would enable the tester to select a Go/No-Go test voltage for separating Pull-In problem starters.

C- Bad Engagement Yoke Geometry- Even with adequate ampere-turns, the plunger will not pull-in if it is allowed to move too far out of the hollow pole. The upward stopping point is controlled by the fingers on the gear engagement yoke, see Figure 10. Often this yoke is bent due to engine backfire while cranking or even bad material handling in the shop. An egg- shaped pivot hole indicates a bent arm which should probably be discarded. Drilling out the hole will not straighten the arm.

The gap between the front and rear actuating fingers should be about 0.100 inches. Wider spacing here allows the plunger to come up too far out of the pole. Tighter spacing causes binding. Bending the thinner forward finger back to reduce the gap to 0.100 inches will improve Pull-In performance. Be sure that armature shaft end-play is within limits as this will add to the same problem.

And:
FORD STARTER SHIMMING










You can usually tell when your Ford starter needs a shim by looking at the drive and you find swirl marks on the cap or face of the drive(bendix).This happens because the drive is engaging too deeply into the flywheel. The face of the drive cover is rubbing on the flywheel and cutting into the cover that holds the drive together. Eventually it cuts thru and the drive comes apart.

This is not the starters fault. It happens because the flywheel is floating. Why? Because the thrust bushings inside the block that keep the crank centered wear after 60 to 80 thousand miles. The wear is gradual and may take several thousand miles to destroy the original starter. But when a new unit is installed it can wipe out the drive in a short time.

When a replacement starter is installed with this condition present you will hear a tinny grinding sound during cranking. Upon removal and inspection of the starter you will find swirl type scratch marks on the face of the drive housing cover.

Ford Motor Co. made a shim for this problem the part number was D7TZ-11N004 it was .090 thick and fit between the starter nose and the bellhousing, to back the starter away from the flywheel. This shim was discontinued. We found one and had it reproduced. They are available to you and we recommendthat you use one if you find any of these signs present on your starter. Why? Because we see as many as 80 to 100 starters come back to us a month where this problem was evident.




good luck,
Al

 

I had a buddy that went though two starters in one year then he put one with a heat shield on it and it still works he said that the starter was get to hot hope this helps

 

 

Two things that I have found are excessive heat from the exhaust and a weak or bad ground from the frame to the motor. I have replaced my ground strap and that seems to help tremendously on extending the life of starters. Hope this helps...

BJ

 

dont buy a rebuilt starter from any auto parts store . yea they might have a life time warranty
but u will be the one having to put one in every time it leaves u stranded.

a heat shield is a good idea and a new starter from ford should solve your problems

i whent through all that rebuilt junk that im going to. go with genuin ford parts they may cost more but in the long run their worth it!!