Starting Problem

[bigman78]

I went to start the truck today and all I here is a grinding sound. I know its electrical but im not sure what. I checked my battery connections and even cut back the + connection and fixed it, the - connection is good and solid I also tightened the connections on the battery. I looked at the cables and they appear to be good. Last I tapped the starter a bunch of times and that did nothing. Im thinking its the starter but not sure.
Any ideas?

[crash_552]

Probably starter or junk flywheel. But I've been wrong before

Did you try kicking the front driver side tire?? That worked for mine when the ground cable broke off

Take it out, have it tested.

[bigman78]

Now that you mention it I have a flywheel that my dad says is missing a few teeth because it wont keep turning over. Could that be the problem.

What if I left the truck in gear and turned the key, would that tell me if its the flywheel?

[crash_552]

I don't know, if you have a neutral safety switch it won't start in gear. If the flywheel is missing teeth, the starter can't grab it anymore, don't keep cranking it. You could burn up the starter. Not sure how to manually turn flywheel. I shall make a phone call.

[crash_552]

You can manually turn flywheel from crank. Put a socket & wratchet on it and turn it about 1/4-1/2 turn. Then try starting it again. If it still does it, pull starter and make sure nose cone ain't broke. Does / did the motor run??

[FORDification]

Now that you mention it I have a flywheel that my dad says is missing a few teeth because it wont keep turning over. Could that be the problem....

Absolutely! With a couple teeth missing on the flywheel, there's nothing for the starter to engage into, except the broken-off teeth stubs. If you simply rotate the engine around a little bit to that the starter will be aligned with some teeth, it should turn over....at least until the flywheel rotates all the way back around and the starter hits the dead spot again.

[68F250]

When my car would do that, I'd put it in gear and rock it to move the flywheel to a different position.

I have heard that the flywheel has a tendency to stop in the same position so the starter always chews on the same spot.

[kid]

One of my racing partners and I went cross country in his 396 66 chevelle and there were 12 teeth on the flex plate when we started and 3 when we got to his home 1235 miles later, We drove with the bell housing cover off and if we killed the motor one of us slid underneath and the other turned the crank at the front until we could hit teeth.

We really did the amazing, on the last stop and shutdown we had 3 teeth left and that motor hit a live cylinder and lit off on 3 teeth.

I have heard that the flywheel has a tendency to stop in the same position so the starter always chews on the same spot.

Not really it will stop in one of 8 places on a V8. The place before the next compression cycle.

[68F250]

Yeah that's what I thought but an old guy once told me that as the engine wears out, it'll stop before the highest compression.

I know my Spitfire more often than not stopped in the same position, thought it was just a coincidence.

[kid]

Yeah some old guys had many strange ideas that did not always pan out.

[68F250]

Hey thinking about it a little more, wouldn't a V8 have only four stopping places, one every 90 degrees?

[68F250]

I know my Spitfire more often than not stopped in the same position, thought it was just a coincidence.

And that position would be the side of the road.

[kid]

4 in this 360 and the other 4 in the next what teeth it stops at is determined by the compression of each cylinder and the speed it was turning when shut off. So 8 points.

[68F250]

Ok let me restate this, 8 stopping places, one every 90 degrees.

(On the second 360, the 4 stopping places are in the same places as the first 360, so in total 4 chewing spots on the flywheel.)

[kid]

Within a couple of teeth it produces 4 broad chewed areas.. How hard did the engine hit that next compression stroke, how good is the compression in that cylinder (each cylinder compression is different by 3,000 miles of use), how fast was it turning and how much internal friction adds up to a random alignment of the teeth? That is what I am referring to.

That was why all but 3 teeth were gone from that Chevelle's flywheel. Random factor tore out teeth in several places and then more random factor caused teeth to not quite be fully engaged over and over until the flex plate was bald with a comb over.