So i bought my brothers old pickup truck and he told me a story of how it once didn't start and it just spun, he managed to start it about 20-30 minutes later. Well i took the truck for its first adventure since getting it back on the road and of course it does this to me.
I pulled the starter and just check my attachments i did a full inspection turning the flywheel completely over twice and only managed to find one section of worn teeth, How cooked it is? should i even risk throwing a new starter on this or should i invest in dropping the transmission? this is a 4wd model so it will be labor intensive. 1999 5.4l 4wd lariat.


old starter

worn teeth




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If you were to try a new starter you will have to file the bad teeth on the fly wheel to give it a chance.
The probkem is that if it skips once again then it's going to keep eating the fly wheel and bendix gear.

It might buy you some time, but eventually it will need a new flywheel or ring gear.

 

I just went through this with my 2000 5.4. Would do fine till it would get to one spot. would take 3 times to catch in that spot. Owner I bought it from said it did it for a couple of years but always started so he didnt fix it. Left me stranded at work one time. Had it replaced with the starter. Had 4 spots almost directly across from each other wore off, The spot that got me was over half wore out. Needless to say had to replace both. Morale is if you dont fix it you will be stranded soon!

 

I'd say, you are just about ready for a new ring gear
Put a new starter drive in the starter at the same time
Ford drives for the modular starters are out there
My starter drive was a Motorcraft SD-341 or Ford F2VY-11350-A