starter

[sursmilie64]

My starter on a 302 with C4,fresh rebuild, makes a terrible noise like a chevy that needs a shim. once the starter ingages it does not return. tryed 3 good starters.Seems to me the new Scat flex plate (157) is a touch to big.Tempted to grind the flandge down. some Advice please .

[popscomet]

ARE you sure you have the correct starter ?? these dang SBF's are picky on what starts them pop

[poboyjo65]

sounds like you have the long nosed starter & need the short one. Groover can tell you all about that, he went thru it. & you can read about it here
http://www.bcbroncos.com/ford%20starters.pdf

[CALIFORNIA CALIENTE]

Sounds to me like you are using the WRONG starter,there are ones for Autos and one for Sticks,and also ones for the bigger flywheel!! ROY.

[sursmilie64]

Read the info on starters and it appers all three starters are auto . If it was a 164 flexplate it would be way off. New auto starter (gear drive) and new flex plate.

[poboyjo65]

Read the info on starters and it appers all three starters are auto . If it was a 164 flexplate it would be way off. New auto starter (gear drive) and new flex plate.

so did you fix it?

I guess I've always lucked up ,,I've never ran into the wrong starter . I have an auto starter from a 164 tooth flexplate (302)& it is same as the one that came off my manual 157 tooth flywheel from the 289.

[sursmilie64]

It will be my weekend prodject. Been doing old fords for over 20 years and this is a first.Used c4 starter from my truck and got same problem.My finger is pointing at the new flexplate.

[Flintlock]

I would double check that you have the right flexplate and that it is installed correctly/not flipped around backwards.

[sursmilie64]

Learned a hard lesson. Original starter (cheap e bay) was bad,made a terrible racket.I installed a used starter from a good running motor. I noticed that the starter gear would stay engaged when I bumped the starter. I was thinking that the gear would retract away from the flex plate, But I appear to be wrong, the gear will not retract do to tension on the flex plate. Gear will retract when motor starts and releases pressure. Before I came to that conclusion I changed 3 starters,2 bell housings ( removed motor and trans) . I orderd a stall to go in this time. Job still not complete.
Embarrassed !! All this work and there was no problem to begin with other than a cheep over sea starter. Now Im about 3 week behind.
Another thing I learned is that the early c4 (pre70) bell is shallower than the latter c4 by about 3/4. I was using the early bell on a truck trans (bell to case) so I could use my old stall and it is to shallow, A 70 bell is needed.
Looking forward to getting this behind me.

[comethead]

Some lessons are harder learned than others. Part of the old car experience.
I like to write down all the stuff I do and learn because my memory sucks and I'd probably make the same mistakes twice

[popscomet]

Some lessons are harder learned than others. Part of the old car experience.
I like to write down all the stuff I do and learn because my memory sucks and I'd probably make the same mistakes twice

BUT,when I write stuff down ,I forget where I put the note,,,I tied a string around my finger one time and forgot why I did that.....my dadgum finger got to hurtin so bad cause the string was to tight,it had cut the blood off,finger turned blue ,thought I was loseing a nail,had to whip out my barlow and cut the string,I still can't remember pop

[Jims65cyclone]

Experience is a great teacher. Years ago I had a Dodge Omni with a transverse mounted VW 4-cylinder engine. The thing went through 3 starters while I owned it. The starter was mounted between the engine and the firewall where you could barely see it, let alone get to it. The first starter took me about 3 hours as I learned things like removing the right front wheel and fender liner, which combination of wrenches, ratchets and drives would work, etc. By the third starter, I was down to under 45 minutes.
Jim