So I have a 75 F250 highboy with the 360FE and toploader 4spd. I'm having a terrible starter problems. When I got the truck it occasionally sounded like it would crank very slowly after only a few seconds of cranking but would still start. The starter looked to be a newish unit. It started fine for months and this problem seems to have progressed in the last 2 weeks. The more recent problem is that the starter would make a horrible grinding noise and only engage the flywheel about half the time and would just free spin otherwise. I pulled the starter off and the teeth on the bendix gear were very chewed up about 1/2 of the length of the tooth. The flywheel looked ok. It was also missing the top bolt but I doubt that was the problem. So I guess my question is does this sound like a bad starter, bad bendix, or will throwing a new starter in this unit cause me the same problems. Unfortunately it's my daily driver so I need to figure out a permanent solution.

 

Go with a new starter not rebuilt as they can be bad from the get go.
The chewed up gear could be from the missing bolt, bad bendix or a starter getting weak and not having enough to push the bendix?
New starter and replace the missing bolt.
Dave ----

 

the missing bolt would allow the starter to move around, chewed up bendix,you better take a very good look at every tooth on the flywheel, there's bound to be a few bad ones, lucky for you the flywheel ring gear can be replaced not the whole flywheel but yes it's a pain to have to pull the trans and clutch, no way around if you have bad teeth ,also find and clean all the grounds, battery to block, body ,frame, that

 

Is the sheet metal dust plate in place between the engine and bell housing?
As previously stated the starter needs both bolts to keep it engaging correctly.