First off I have to say these message boards are great. I've been reading for about a month now getting tips and trying them out, more on that later.

Recently it has been very cold in MN and the old 89 F-150 300 with a T-18 has been starting like a champ. The last few days however I've noticed it sounded like the battery was close to dead and it could barely get the engine to turn over and fire. (Battery checked out fine) The part that scared me was every time it did fire up it would then sound like the starter was not releasing off the flywheel soon enough. This was accompanied by a noise very hard to describe, but almost like a bad bearing squeal.

I finally took the starter off tonight to inspect it and here is where it gets interesting. The end of the starter shaft, closest to the gear, is encased in a metal sand casting. This entire end, or I want to call it a mini bell housing, was broken off and the starter shaft would wobble back and forth about a 1/2 inch. I have no clue how this happened or how it even managed to get started.

Next I freaked out and thought where did that casing go. I was so relieved to find it sitting nicely right inside the bell housing directly next to the flywheel in one big piece. I talked with the 2nd to last owner and he said that the same thing happened to him about 4 years ago. The end of the starter just busted off and it would barely start. He eventually got the fragment fished out of the bell housing.

My question is what is causing this? Do I possibly need to shim the new starter? Is there a better Ford starter? I saw something in a previous post about a Ford Super Starter? The flywheel does not appear to be "chewed" up. I'm going to call my Ford dealer tomorrow, but I've been very impressed at the technical knowledge on this site and thought I'd give it a try.

Thank you very much in advance. If you want I have a digital camera and can upload pictures of the starter. I find them rather amusing.

Joey

 

The part that broke off is called the Drive End Housing . As to why it broke off , you got me ? Maybe poor quality metal . I dont think you need any shims , But check with Ford Parts just to be sure when you purchase the new starter .

 

Same thing happened to me last week on my '77 F-100 with 300 inline six and C-4. Seems to be a rare occurance. Slap a new one on. If you can get someone to TIG weld the broken drive end together on the starter, you can get your core charge back.