Well, my 3 week old starter had to be replaced Friday. It just wasn't contacting the flywheel. At first I thought there was a broken tooth, but after several manual turns of the engine it would still just go " Zipppp " I hopped the old bus with starter in hand and had it swapped out under warranty. The new started sounded fine initially, just as the old one had. The difference is that this one is giving me a grinding after just a few days, but intermittently. Some times it will sound just fine, others it will sound like crap and scare little old ladies. After last week's realization that I've got a '72 Galaxie engine, I got to wondering if it had a Galaxie flywheel. The tooth count, pitch, and OD, seem to be the same, but there's a 4oz weight difference between the two flywheels ( Galaxie is slightly lighter ) and I'm wondering if that translates to a thinner flywheel since everything else, including the counter balance weight, is the same. I did note that the Galaxie starter looks like it will thrust 1/8" further than the Bronco starter. The auto parts guy didn't seem to think even a couple missing teeth were much to worry about, telling me he had a couple trucks that had scabby flywheels and when it stopped on the dead spot, he'd just crank it over manually a few teeth and off he'd go. Anyone know if there's any identifying marking I can see with the inspection plate off that might help ID the flywheel ? Along the same lines, anyone wanna chime in with the general steps to replacing the flywheel ? Is it a day job ? Half day ? Half hour ?

I know I know....... but my shop manual doesn't come for another week.

Thanks !!-Scott

 

If you have teeth missing or they are in bad shape on your flywheel thats whats eating you starters, as far as replacement you pull the trans or engine, I would go trans. how long this takes depends on how much beer ya got. one day sober.

 

Which 1972 Galaxie engine do you have? 302? 351W ??

 

Well I was assuming it was the 351W. It has an Edelbrock manifold & carb on it and the manifold is stamped 351W. I did note when the starter was out that it seems to be contacting the flywheel with only the 1st 3rd of the starter gear. Something else I noticed was that the cover plate between the flywheel and tranny had been bent slightly at some point, but I can't tell just from eyeballing it if that's causing the starter to offset a bit.

-Scott

 

1969/72 351W Galaxie = C5AZ-6375-T .. Flexplate 164 Teeth

1984/89 Bronco = D1ZZ-6375-A .. Flexplate 164 Teeth marked: D1ZP-AB

Note: The 351W engine, when installed in passenger cars use a FLYWHEEL REINFORCING PLATE = C2OZ-6A366-A / 3 27/32" O.D. / 2 1/8" I.D. / .075" thick / 6 29/64" mounting holes.


Bronco's with a 351W do not use the reinforcing plate.

I don't know why, but someone else may know what the difference is.

 

Those are interesting numbers. I wonder if the reinforcing plate was added because the Galaxie flywheel was marginally thinner then the truck one ? Here's something else I discovered. Installing the Galaxie starter in my Bronco eliminated *all* the scary noise, not just some, or most , but all of the noise. I figured I was doomed to throw another starter at it regardless since I'm not gonna do a flywheel swap out in the street ( or anywhere else while my wife's car is waiting for me to finish a tranny swap... ) so I'd see what that extra 1/8" of throw would do. A couple other things I noticed were this : With the Bronco starter in, the bent index plate seemed to be causing the starter to be slightly skewed to the right, which would translate to the nose cone moving farther from the flywheel. The body, and area where the nose cone meets the body on the Galaxie starter was larger, and when tightened down, it flattened the index plate rather than skewing. One thing I didn't do, and now regret, was count the starter drive teeth, and try and get the diameter of the starter drive. Is this the fabled " 10 Tooth Starter " ???

So...for the time being.....it's starting quiet as a mouse...well ... a really big mouse with headers and short pipes. We'll see if it stays that way.....

Thanks for everyone's input !!

-Scott