Starter grinding

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jrc4y4

jrc4y4

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I have a 72 Scamp with 318 and dual exhausts. It has a Mopar Performance mini starter. Anytime I drive it, if I turn it on, and it doesn't have time to cool down, when I go to start it, the gear on the starter grinds, I assume against the flywheel, and I'm not able to start it. Sometimes this is solved by letting it cool down longer, or by hitting it with a rubber mallet. Occasionally it does it for a split second on a cold start but it never continues to grind when it's starting for the first time of the day. I just hear the split second grind.

I have heard Chevys have starter shims. Has anyone had this similar issue? What are some ideas? I have considered header wrap on the exhaust but I do not think it will make such a great difference that it will solve the issue. I have used a starter heat shield before with little results. Any help would be great.
 
The first thing to do might be to check torque on starter bolts and observe that it mounts flush.

Not familiar with shims on Mopar.

Starter grind sometimes happens in the starter motor between the rotor and stator due to worn bushings. It is fairly rare, and might only happen at very high miles, or poorly done rebuild.
 
Motors tend to stop turning at the same spots when shut off (like 4 of them around the flywheel)
This wears on those same four spots every time you start the car, and the "go to" for the problem was to replace the flywheel and possibly the starter depending on the starter gear condition.
If it only happens hot I would tend to thinks it's a problem within the starter and not the flywheel.
Something about the heat isn't letting the starter engage correctly, and if it was only a heat problem that a shield would fix then all of us without a shield would be having the same problem.

For about 15-20 bucks you could pull a used one off a wrecking yard truck and see if that fixes it.
Bet it does.:D
 
Ok I may try to locate my original one. It worked when removed but I put on a mini starter when I rebuilt the engine 10 years ago. You know, when you're 16, 1 pound will help you go faster in the 1/4 :rofl:
 
I do not know what a sfi flywheel is. It has a stall but a stock flywheel.

I did the header wrap on the exhaust and then wrapped a heat shield on the starter last night. Will try it out and see what happens.
 
If its got a "stall" (convertor) then it has no flywheel. the ring gear is on the convertor. If you pull your starter, the gear should snap out pretty sharply when you apply 12V. your ring gear may be worn in the 4 "spots" where it usually lands. Also make sure your starter is seated in the snout hole and bolted tight. Hitting with a hammer is a sign of a bad magnetic solenoid actuator on the starter itself. It can be dissected and seen as the top "can" on top of the starter motor.
 
Oh gotcha, didn't know that a stall eliminated the flywheel. I pulled the starter out last night to wrap it but did not try putting any juice to it. Guess I should have checked that. None of the teeth seemed to have any significant wear.
 
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