Starter problem

[vintage chromoly]

hello all.
I have a 440, 4 speed application with a factory bellhousing (properly located via dial indicator and offset dowels) and a Hays SFI 143T flywheel. I'm using a Robbmc starter with the .060 shim installed. The flywheel was balanced to neutral and it ably took a small touch with the 1/2" drill bit to perfectly balance it, so I don't think the ring gear is out of round or on crooked.

My start circuit is the factory circuit with the starter relay on the firewall.

My problem is that when I turn the key to start the car, the starter momentarily squeals / grinds and then when released it squeals / grinds again. While cranking (momentarily until the engine fires) it sounds as it should.

Upon initial install I didn't use the shim provided by Robbmc as it looked like I had around 1/16"between the face of the pinion gear and the front of the ring gear. I spoke to Robbmc today (super helpful guy) and he said to try adding the .060 shim. This evening I installed the provided shim and still no improvement.

I'm going to try him again tomorrow, but I figured someone had to have this condition before.

Any ideas?

Thanks for any input

 

[snakeoil24]

Can I recommend you wipe the gear and fly wheel teeth with Dycam blue. Them run the starter and look at the pattern where the blue is worn off. Takea picture of it and send to rob to look at.

 

[bm02tj]

The offset dowels did they also move the starter closer to crank center making the gear wine from being to tight

 

[vintage chromoly]

No. The bellhousing was too low and the offset dowels located the bellhousing to within .002 of runout.

In the event that the drive gear and the ring gear are too close, what's the fix?

 

[vintage chromoly]

Some pics of the tooth backslash pattern:

 

[bm02tj]

do you have the proper bolts that are tight on starter to locate correctly
as it looks like it is barely catching the teeth

 

[vintage chromoly]

The starter is mounted with the correct 7/16 bolts and located via the factory register in the bellhousing.

 

[oldbee]

Defer to others, but opening up the starter holes and pushing down while tightening is my only thought. Not like shimming a SBC.

 

[vintage chromoly]

You cannot change the relationship of the ring and drive gear on a mopar.
The starter locates in a register in the bellhousing. There is no backlash adjustment.
The only adjustment would be a depth and done by shimming the starter to move it toward the front of the vehicle and away from the face of the ring gear.
The starter is located and tightened properly

 

[oldbee]

Sooo, what could be the problem besides a bad starter? OR a bad flywheel ? I’m thinking “ off-shore” crap here. I just don’t remember all this crap happening in the 60’s- 80’s. Back then, you bought whatever and it fit. I know ranting again.

 

[bearman]

check rear bushing on the starter must sure it is not worn out or binding up as you engage the starter.

 

[Fran Blacker]

If you can measure the starter gear diameter vs a Chrysler gear to see if they're the same?​

 

[747mopar]

How easy is your starter to pull out, headers or factory manifolds? I'd try running the starter out of the car just to see if it's acting right. I had a weird starter noise when I installed a mini starter, turned out there was a lot of casting flash on the block making the starter bolt up cock eyed... ground it down, zero problems since so you never know. Good luck