I have an 85 ford ranger 4x4, 2.8 V6. I'm going to have to put in the 4th starter motor and 2nd ring gear in the past year and a half. Something is definately not right. I know how to install a starter, so that's not it. I have asked a few dealerships and auto parts stores... ignorance and apathy across the board. There is a shim available that I have bought, it seems the only logical explination... is there supposed to be a shim? Am I missing something?? This is getting much too expensive to keep up, please help...

 

I remember reading a post about some starters with 9 teeth and some with 10. Maybe the gear on the starter and the ring gear don't match. What does the wear pattern look like?

 

To be honest, there is no visible wear to the ring gear even in the apparent "bald spot". Wear to the starter looks even and out-to-in like a cutting wheel/grinder. Even that is minimal, because the gears on the starter sitll have their slight point to them.

 

I'm not exactly sure what you meant by "bald spot" & "cutting wheel", but if it looks good thats the only idea I had.

Anyone else??

 

I had an 85 Bronco 2 before I got my Ranger. I had the exact same problem. I put like 3 starters in the thing. The first one that came with the truck was plain worn out, so that was okay. The second one, well, that got chewed up by the ring gear, so in went a third one. The every time I got under the thing, I checked the ring gear, and it was on it's last legs. What I found with my truck was some previous owner had installed a starter and LOST the starter bolts. So, instead of having nice fitting, shouldered metric bolts to mount the starter in proper alignment, I had SAE bolts which pulled out the metric threads in the aluminum housing.

What I ended up doing was pulling the tranny to do a ring gear. The clutch was fine so I left that alone. Once the new ring gear was where it should be, I tackled the improper starter mount.

I cleaned up the threads to take SAE bolts, and mounted the starter with fresh lock and flat washers. Then, with the absence of stock shoulder bolts, I pushed the starter as close as possible to the ring gear axis, and tightened the bolts snug. I then started up the truck, making sure the starter got it's clearance. I shut the truck off, checked the starter position again, pushed it over again but just a little bit, then tightened the bolts down real good.

After that, I kept an eye on it, and had a wrench in my truck just in case I had to move the starter again. But it never did move, and I traded it in for my Ranger a few months later.

 

You shouldn't need to shim the starter. There is a metal plate that goes between the engine and transmission that mounts all around the bell housing. If that is missing, the starter bendix would be engaging farther in than it should, and would cause things to wear out. You should be able to see if it is installed. It is (I think) aluminum, and about 1/16th thick. It might be steel. It's been a while. Keep us posted.

 

Yes, as far as I can tell, we're talking about the same thing and it's there. The "bald spot" I'm referring to... there is one spot on the ring gear I find 2 of 5 times I have to start the truck where the starter isn't touching the ring gear for whatever reason so the starter is able to spin freely. If I pop the clutch or rotate the engine slightly using a similar method the starter finds bite and rolls the engine over. You can still hear the "rough spot" where a dim grinding(for lack of better words) noise is heard when the gears of the starter spin and bite again. Maybe that helps identify the problem? Keep in mind the ring gear only 18 months old and the starter is about 6 months old. Both installed correctly.

 

Sounds like the flywheel is warped if it contacts only some of the times, check the runout.

 

The starter should engage the ring gear all the time. If there are times when it is not engaged, something is not put together right. The first place to look is the starter itself. Is there something on the mating surface that is causing the starter to be "cocked"? Is something cracked or broken? Are you feeling any vibrations from the engine? If so, do the vibrations get worse with rpms?

 

Yes, there is a slight vibration from the engine that does seem to intensify with higher revolution speeds... there is also a vibration from the wheels I attributed a great deal of the total vibration to. Think the flywheel needs to be replaced??

 

I bet you will find some teeth missing on your ring gear.

 

Sounds like something is out of balance or out of round. If the starter is not engaging the ring gear all the time, it might be the flywheel is loose. I really don't think that if the flywheel is warped (unless "really" warped), that the starter would not engage the ring gear teeth all the way around. The flywheel is one massive hunk of steel, and it seems unlikely that it could warp enough to cause this kind of problem.Perhaps the bolts were not tightened and letting the flywheel get off center. That would explain the starter not engaging and the vibrations. It really seems to me that the flywheel has loosend up. Does the clutch seem to operate properly all the time, or does it do strange things sometimes? Are there any strange noises coming from the clutch while shifting? And as asked above, are any teeth missing on the ring gear?

 

No teeth missing from the ring gear, no funny feel or noise when shifting, everything is torqued to specs (I replaced the clutch myself). Perhaps irrelevant, the reason the ring gear was changed 18 months ago was this very problem happened to me off in the woods... had to pop the clutch with 5 feet of runway (trees get in the way). Truck starts well when popping clutch, fires up immidately when starter engages, doesn't like the rain (running or starting becomes frustrating)

 

Wow, you are making this hard!!! Are you sure the starter is not engaging the ring gear. I mean, is it actually not engaging 2 out of 5 times? If all the gears are looking good, and you don't see metal chunks floating around, I am going to guess that the bendix is not working properly. It might be gummed up or shot. I would check again about the 9-10 tooth bendix to make sure you have the right one, and pull the starter to make sure the bendix is working ok.