Starter noise, not starting

[Gus]

Hey all,

First time posting...I am having a problem with my starter on a recently bought CJ7 (AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l , T-5 tranny, towed to the house). When turned over it makes a awful grinding noise (almost like engine is started already but isn't), and it takes several times of this to start up if it even does. I changed out the starter because I thought it was bad but ended up being the battery. The old starter had metal shavings, when the new one was removed it also had metal shavings. When the flywheel was inspected, some teeth are worn on the engine side (teeth leading edges rounded, some are chipped) but nothing major. I had to retap and put a helicoil in the starters bottom hole on the tranny due to being stripped out so I replaced the bolts also. The replacement bolts are not fully threaded and I put lock washers on so the bolts won't back off. I can upload pictures tomorrow in the daylight. I am at my whits end and can't figure out what is wrong. I have replaced the cables, starter, battery and starter solenoid. I even sanded the plate where the starter mounts to try and give it a better ground...Please help me, and thanks ahead of time.

Gus

 

[CJ]

Metal shavings would mean to me that the starter is misaligned with the fly wheel (being that you said teeth are worn). The grinding sound points to this also. If you push the bendix into the flywheel, how much clearance is there between it and the flywheel gear?

 

[Gus]

CJ,

How do you get it to where you have the ability to see how the bendix meshes with the flywheel? There are two covers: one the starter actually goes through and as far as I can tell it goes up the backside of the motor, the other is on the opposite side of the motor and can be taken off but I can't see the teeth with it removed. The thing that I don't understand is if there are no adjustments to be made, how can it be misaligned.

Thanks,
Gus

 

[Gus]

Found the problem to be a bad nose bushing on the "remanufactured" starter. Replaced it, fired right up no noise! Thanks CJ for the suggestion.

Gus

 

[CJ]

Found the problem to be a bad nose bushing on the "remanufactured" starter. Replaced it, fired right up no noise! Thanks CJ for the suggestion.

Gus

Glad you found the issue, it had to be a bendix / fly wheel mesh problem.

 

[73CJ]

I've had several bad reman starters over the years. Like don't they test them???

 

[Gus]

If I would have known that the reman starters had a bushing issue I would have looked at that. I figured they replaced all the bushings.

Gus

 

[Gus]

It started once or twice fine. So was out of town a few days come back and the noise/problem is back. I have since mic checked the hole that the starter goes through. Is it possible that the plate between the engine and the Transmission tweaked and flexing? How do you see if the how the bendix is engaging the flywheel. Also I have another question, where is the negative battery terminal supposed to go? Mine goes to the engine block, but this diagram shows it going to the chassis and the body. Thanks ahead of time.

Gus

 

[cass]

the negative is best going to the block and the chassis. most vehicles have a very large cable grounding to the block ans a smaller wire grounding to the chassis.