Hope someone can help me. Six months ago, the engine in my 1984 Bronco II, 2.9 ltr, 4WD died. Being unable to find another Bronco engine, my husband bought a 1984 Ranger engine to put in it. Now the original starter makes a horrible noise when it engages(?)and tries to grind the teeth off the flywheel. He has tried shimming the starter, tried using the Ranger's starter, bell housing, and flywheel, all to no avail. I really love this Bronco, but he is ready to take it to the junk yard. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

I had the exact same problem. I must have put 10 starters in there and tried shimming and everything and it didn't work. But i finally came up with a great idea and it has worked for about 6 months now (knock on wood). what i did was take 4 pieces of steel and grinded them in to wedges. then all you need to do is put one wedge in between each ear of the starter so that the front of the starter tilts towards the flywheel. then take the other wedge and place it on the outside of the ear so taht the bolts go in straight. it works really good. don't worry about tilting it too far. mine is probably at about a 30 degree angle and it works great.

 

Did he use the orginal fly wheel or the ranger fly wheel? Either way tyry using a starter for a ranger. If it doesnt work shoot me an e-mail and I'll see what I can do for you. One more thing your engine is a 2.8 Ford didn't use the 2.9 until 86.
Bruce

 

Well
I had a simaler probelm with
something like that I put a new ring gear in
and it didn't help so I put a second rebuilt starter
no go try a stock starter and no problem

bosh starters are not as good as they could be

 

You should count the teeth on the starter and the flywheel, then get a hold of your local ford dealer and see if the starter is right for that particular flywheel..you may need another ring gear for your flywheel. It's very easy to replace.

 

i had to kind of shim it to tilt it in for mine to work but after about 20 starters i pulled it out and put in a 5.0. now my starter works.. give that a try.

 

well I ended up apon recomendation a rebuiler of starters
I got a used starter from the auto wreaker that was stock with the motorcraft sticker still on it with a good bendix
take a look at the teath on the starter ever since I did
that I have had no problems I had tried everything 3 rebuilt starters from 2 company bosh and wilson starters the motorcraft
starter that cost me $34 works like no problem ever since
next time I'm just getting this one rebuilt

and it is way cheaper than buying one

 

I have an 88 Ranger 4x4 that has the same problem. I replaced several starters, thinking I just got bad ones (blamed "bad" parts). I ultimately broke down and bought a Ford flywheel and a Ford Starter (old starter now obsolete, I had to get a 1990 starter and install a conversion kit). Even all that did not solve the problem. It would start after that, but it make a grinding, throaty noise at the same time. That solution would last about a month, with the noise getting worse all the time. Finally, it wouldn't catch enough to start at all. The starter would just spin up against the flywheel.

The two starter bolts were both in good and tight. So with the starter held firmly in place and everyone tells me the flywheel cannot move (that is beyond my mechanical background), then I just didn't have a clue as to how to fix it.

The logical solution seemed to be that the flywheel needed to move towards the starter or the starter needed to move towards the flywheel. The teeth were not engaging, except at their tips, and the tips soon wore out.

Someone earlier in this same column said he used wedges and used it to tilt the starter. That made sense to me so I made some and tried to do the same. I didn't like that solution cause there seemed no way to keep the wedges in place. And I didn't care for the thought of a metal wedge falling INTO the assembly, possibly lodging into the flywheel/starter mesh point. The flywheel cover has no strength. Any kind of a shim has to be put near the two bolts.

I came up with this. I took two washers to a grinding wheel, held one end with a set of locking pliers and ground down the washer into a wedge shape. The 1/3 held by the pliers retained it's original thickness, the 1/3 in the middle (area of the hole) was angled, and the 1/3 on the far side ended up really thin.

I went to install them but became concerned that as I turned the bolt, the washer might turn and I would have no way of knowing. So I eyeballed how the washer had to be installed (thin edge out, thick edge towards the flywheel), and then used a hacksaw to cut a notch in the edge of the washer that would face me as I lay under the truck. Then I coated the notch with "white out" to improve visibility. With the washers installed and with the bolts tighted, the starter ended up "cocked" towards the flywheel with about an extra 1/4 inch added between the starter and flywheel cover.

It started right up! No grinding sound. No problems. Eureka!

 

 

I had the same starter grinding problem, and i was about to replace my flywheel after many starters when i happend to find this site. I tried the wedge idea but with a twist i grinded down some scrap metal into a wedge, like the first guy guy said but i also was afraid of it falling into the gears and tearing them up, like the other guy. So i grinded the metal clean and used some JB weld to secure it to the flywheel cover and then bent up the outer part of the wedge so if it does break loose of the JB it will fall out away from the truck and not into the flywheel. And now its starts up nicer and quieter then it ever has. try it, it works, think about it, a $60 flywheel and hours of work or a 2 cent scrap of metal and 20 mins?

 

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there are 9 and 10 tooth starters for the bronco2 depending on year and trans. also
165tooth and 169 tooth flywheels.