I have an 05 Supercab, that has a starter problem. It makes a grinding sound every so often, as if the gear is hitting the flywheel, and not engaging. It seems to occur randomly,and usually only once before the truck starts. Today it happened 3 times in a row, very annoying and embarrassing. I have already had the starter replaced. My trustworthy mechanic looked at the flywheel, and found no damage. Electrical and grounds checked out OK too. Anyone have an idea about this or having a similar problem?
T

 

There is a mismatch between the starter drive and the flywheel, either in worn teeth or tooth count. Was the starter or drive replaced prior? Only use Ford starters and drives on these engines. Aftermarket, universal, or gypo crap dosen't hack it.

 

I have the same exact problem, its rediculously embarresing. Is it causing damage to the truck? It only happens like once a month it seems and if its not doing anything wrong to the truck I won't replace it but...

 

if you keep a bad starter long enough it will wear teeth off the flywheel, not a good thing

 

So basically to fix the problem I need a new starter and flywheel? If I got an ur pulley kit would that include a flywheel?

 

The problem started with the factory starter, and did not get better when I had a NAPA starter put in.

 

You won't know if the flywheel teeth are damaged until you remove the starter and inspect the flywheel teeth.

What's a ur pulley kit? I doubt it would contain a flywheel, but then again, I don't know what this kit is....

It used to be that the term flywheel refered to a manual transmission, and flexplate was for an automatic. The Flywheel was thick and heavy (for contact with the clutch/pressure plate) and balanced; a flexplate was light, and bolted to the torque converter used by automatic transmissions. Both had the teeth on them that the starter engaged with.

 

because you already damaged the flywheel/flexplate teeth already.