Oldguard 7

I HAD A THREAD ASKING ABOUT THE GEAR TEETH ON THE STARTER HAVING TO MESH WITH THE TEETH ON THE FLEXPLATE. DO YOU JUST ATTATCH THE STARTER TO THE BLOCK AND CRANK THE ENGNE TO SEE IF THE TEETH MESH OR DO YOU HAVE TO PUSH THE PINION GEAR OUT AND ALIGN THE GEARS TEETH WITH THE TEETH ON THE FLEXPLATE? HELP, HELP AND HELP :confused: :confused: :confused: ARE THE MINI STARTERS BETTER TO USE THAN THE LARGER STARTERS?

LATNC3

well, when i changed mine i hade no garage and ity was spring....and i live in Canada!!!! BURRRRRR. i was a hassle to chnage the starter. i have little or no room to move my sausage fingers, there for lots of cuts on my hands and very upset neighbours....i had to use some colourful language to help the starter in!! :lol: as far as gears meshing, i had no problem or must have been very lucky. it just slid in......after 2 days ofcourse. when your on your back and holding a 20 pound starter up above your head for extended amount of time, it wears on you!! thats way 2 days!!

ray77vette

as far as mini-starters, i have never used one so can't offer any advice. anyway on to the starter. just make sure you label all of the wires first off. then, remove the wires. unbolt the old starter. can't remember how many bolts hold it on. as far as alighning the new starter, i had no trouble and the teeth on the new starter will turn and i am assuming will automaticaly alighn up with the teeth on the flywheel. instalation is in reverse of removal.

good luck man,
ray

mayberg

There is a procedure to shim the starter to the block to make sure the teeth in the gears align properly. When I picked up a starter at AutoZone, the procedure and the alignment tool (a piece of 1/8 or 3/16 wire) was provided, along with some shim material.

One way or the other, I couldn't get the starter to shim correctly according to the procedure. But it starts just fine and sounds normal as it's cranking.

7vette2

I am not sure exactly what information you need. I just replaced mine with an original Delco (Re-manufactured) and it went back in just as the original came out. The original was not shimmed so that is how I replaced the new one. Sounds fine and starts fine. I am not familiar with the mini-starter so I am not sure what that cinfiguration is. As was mentioned before, the bendix pulls the starter gear in to the flywheel and releases on the start. Here is a website that might help you: http://www.eotb.ca/offroadtech/howtoo/starter/delco.htm Hope this helps.
Ben

ray77vette

come to think of it, mine came with shims too, come to think of it, the old one didn't have shims so i didn't bother with them.

KenSny

Don't know if you have a manual tranny or not and I'm not familar with an auto inspection cover setup. But if you do then you can remove the flywheel inspection cover (the starter noses into the hole on the left), then bolt up the starter to the engine. The when you manually engage the gear to the flywheel you can see if it needs shims or not.

Spook

Yo Yo Yo... Starter Madness...

Actually I use one of jegs ministarters and boy does it crank like a racehorse. Also provides alot of extra room and is easier to hold up with a hand as you get your bolts in. I would deffinately suggest a mini as the replacement.

You got two measurements your concerned with the gear distance from the flywheel/flexplate should be within a small fraction of an inch like ~1/16 or something like that. And then you want to pull out the starter gear and hold it and measure the gap between teeth and flywheel/flexplate. That should be about a paper clips width or so. (bend one out and slide it through there).

There are some tell tail noises associated with an improperly installed starter. It will whine before or after it actually has cranked the engine (I think one is too far the other too near). Then of course worst case is it will grind like a SOB and not engage.

Spook
:reddevil

76BlackStingRay

just make sure you got a starter for you car and just bolt it rite up should be np