2 destroyed starters in a row...WTH?
I have recently suffered 2 broken starters, both times with teeth taken off of the ring gear. The first time was last October with 6,600 carefree KM on a new 408 powertrain. At the time, I assumed that a tooth must have broken off of the starter gear, in turn breaking a tooth off of the ring gear, and also breaking the locating cone off of the starter. No other damage was detected.
After replacing the Starter and Torque Converter, and finding no other problems, I had driven the car only about 10 times and the same thing happened – no teeth broken on the starter gear this time, but 2 teeth off of the ring gear and another broken locating cone.
The first time I assumed a crappy (Chinese??) starter but now apparently it’s something totally different. In both instances there seemed to be a loud bang (no kidding) when cranking the starter, then the starter just free wheeled on the missing teeth.
Here is some info which may or may not be relevant:
-408, 727, TC, Starter, Battery cables, Starter relay all brand new 2 years ago.
-New Optima Red top battery, extra ground strap on back of engine to firewall
-HEI “R2R” Distributor also new 2 years ago – timing 10-12*initial, 34* total.
-Running 94 gas.
-Both failures occurred starting an already warm engine.
-In the past, I had verified that the TDC mark on the Balancer was correct. Timing was checked again just before the 2nd failure.
Besides the 2 busted starters, the Engine runs excellent – lots of power, smooth as silk for a scrappy 408. No indication that there is anything wrong with the whole set up when the motor is running.
Anybody else had this experience? Something is obviously wrong – no clue where to start looking first.
Thanks in advance,
First time
Second time
I have recently suffered 2 broken starters, both times with teeth taken off of the ring gear. The first time was last October with 6,600 carefree KM on a new 408 powertrain. At the time, I assumed that a tooth must have broken off of the starter gear, in turn breaking a tooth off of the ring gear, and also breaking the locating cone off of the starter. No other damage was detected.
After replacing the Starter and Torque Converter, and finding no other problems, I had driven the car only about 10 times and the same thing happened – no teeth broken on the starter gear this time, but 2 teeth off of the ring gear and another broken locating cone.
The first time I assumed a crappy (Chinese??) starter but now apparently it’s something totally different. In both instances there seemed to be a loud bang (no kidding) when cranking the starter, then the starter just free wheeled on the missing teeth.
Here is some info which may or may not be relevant:
-408, 727, TC, Starter, Battery cables, Starter relay all brand new 2 years ago.
-New Optima Red top battery, extra ground strap on back of engine to firewall
-HEI “R2R” Distributor also new 2 years ago – timing 10-12*initial, 34* total.
-Running 94 gas.
-Both failures occurred starting an already warm engine.
-In the past, I had verified that the TDC mark on the Balancer was correct. Timing was checked again just before the 2nd failure.
Besides the 2 busted starters, the Engine runs excellent – lots of power, smooth as silk for a scrappy 408. No indication that there is anything wrong with the whole set up when the motor is running.
Anybody else had this experience? Something is obviously wrong – no clue where to start looking first.
Thanks in advance,
First time
Second time