My 1986 woth the 302 efi and auto transmission will not start. I have discovered they the starter does not move forward far enough to engage the flywheel and start the truck. Ot worked for a while but has worn the corners on the flywheel teeth and no lo ger engages it. I know it's the right starter. Any thoughts on how to make my starter engage the flywheel again? It doesn't even have to move far, and there are already no shims on the starter. Please help.

 

Does the starter gear extend fully?

Have had a few challenges where either crud built up obstructing full travel, or the bendix mechanism itself failed, resulting in the starter not engaging.

The bendix is, or at least used to be, replaceable rather than changing out the entire starter.

 

I know the starter gear extends, how can I tell if it's fully extending or not?

 

Whew, it's been years going into decades since I've fooled with this, so the memory and visual recollections are quite dusty.

Figure it ought to go out pretty much the full length of the rod the gear rides on.

Perhaps another approach would be to measure from the bell housing mounting flange in to the furthest edge of the flywheel gear.

It would seem that the leading edge of the starter gear needs to go at minimum that far out with respect to the mating starter flange to make sure the gears are fully engaged with each other.

Can't see Ford designing something where the gears don't make full width contact.

 

Will nose cone starter work on 2013 f150i installed starter without and n
ot engaging flywheel

 

Are you positive it's the correct starter for it? Like was mentioned earlier by wde3477 it's been a minute for me also and he had some good tips to check. I do recall a chevy 350 I had decades ago that was spawned from satan. Between shimming the starter, replacing a flywheel twice over the course of months I finally got it just right. But yes make sure surfaces are clean and there's nothing causing the starter to not flange up flush. Also ensure wiring and power is sufficient that the starter has enough juice getting to it to fully engage the starter gear.

 

It worked for a while, which is why I was confused but I'm getting the feeling the parts store guys gave me the wrong one. The gear fully extends, it's just not reaching the flywheel.

 

FWIW, there were significant differences between the auto and manual tranny versions - as related to hard lesson learned experience from my '76 F100 ,,, remembering that the auto tranny starter had a much longer starter snout for gear travels...???

 

Two AC Delco starters on Rockauto. They do differ somewhat there on the end. Manual trans on L, Auto trans on R.

 

What the Robertson on not wood?