the farms truck needed a starter, so we took the old one out, went to ford and they gave us a reman.. put it on today, trucked fired up then a split second later makes a loud, awful screach/grinding sound coming from the starter/flywheel. never did this before with the old starter when it did work. any ideas? i do not know the engine size, but im guessing it may be a 5.0. any help would be great! Thanks

edit: we took starter back off and you can see the ends of the teeth on the starter are kind of worn a little from when we tried starting it. looks like it would need a shim/spacer, but then Ford told us we do not need one.

 

There are two different starters for that truck. One for a manual trans and one for an automatic. Make sure you got the right one. Also, the solenoid on the firewall could have gotten stuck. Were you able to kill the engine with the key? If so, the solenoid thing probably isn't the problem. Might have just gotten the wrong starter.

 

yes i could shut down the engine with the key. damn, too bad they took the old starter, but they seem to be identical. but i will look into the manual trans one and automatic. thanks for the help

 

auto or manual trans? what part # did you get?

 

its an auto trans. i didnt get it. the owners of the farm went to get it. they arent too educated on this stuff though

 

according to the motorcraft website the part # for an automatic is SA734BRM. its the same for each engine.

 

thanks. we do not know any specs of the truck. alot of aftermarket things and such, just it was on side of road and needed an old truck that ran for farm use, so not sure of what engine is in it. thanks for the number

 

The reason there are two different starters for auto or manual is that the flywheel is closer to the engine block on a manual application which in turn means that the engaging end of the starter is shorter. The auto is longer due to the increased distance to the flywheel from the block. If an automatic starter is installed on a manual application, it will grind into the flywheel constantly. If the opposite occurs, it may grind when trying to start because the bendix is not engaging the teeth properly. Ask me how I know.

 

I think I have that one figured out

 

ok sorry to bring this back up, but they got a different starter from the first one we tried, ford said to try this one now as it is the other one listed for the truck. so i put it in today hoping it would work, and what do you know, makes the same damn sound once it fires up. a very very loud screatch. so right now what else could be the problem? im getting tired of taking the starter in and out. thanks god its only 2 bolts. so anybody have any guesses?

 

Are you sure that the noise is comming from the starter and not the serpentine belt being worn. The belt sometimes slips when you first start the truck because it is on fast idle and the altenator is pulling hard to charge the battrie. Also check that All the pullies on the truck spin free and that a bearing on one isn't causing the problem.

 

Make sure that the bracket from the end of the starter (front towards radeator) to the block is put back on. The starter can tork over and cause noise if that bracket ins't put on sometimes.

 

did you check out the flywheel/flexplate?

 

yeah we are beginning to suspect it may be the flywheel, maybe from trying to start it for awhile when the old starter was going bad might have messed up gears on the flywheel? Possibility? we were starting the truck for awhile with the original starter, so could that have done somethign to the flywheel?

oldman-yes the noise is the starter, someone was under there listening

Thanks for all replies