Ive been having a problem with my starter for a while. Sometimes it engages normally and sometimes it grinds on the flywheel cause it doesnt engage fully. I found out that the whole starter was loose because the threads in the tranny for one bolt were messed up so I rethreaded it and put it back on nice and tight. however, it didnt fix the problem. I am assuming that the starter is supposed to be spaced away from the tranny a little bit. the question is, how much space? i could figure it out by trial and error but it would be nice to know before hand to save time. thanks.

 

I am having the same grinding and sometimes the starter gear doesn't even kick out to engage. It's embarrassing as hell. It always happens when the car is cooled down and I go to start it. First crank and I hear the starter spin, but nothing. Second and maybe third tries it grinds the flywheel. Hopefully by the 4th try it starts the car. I've never changed the starter on my 7; is it a pain in the *** or what? How much do they go for rebuilt?

 

I had the same problem on my 85se a while back. The starter would spin without engaging and sometimes it would just click. I had tried a used starter with the same result. I thought it was the battery cables and the battery itself. I changed the cables as well as the battery and still a no go especially when the engine is cold. I took both starters to the shop and both of them tested good. I finally got fed up and got a new starter. Since then, I have no problem starting. I talked to many others about starters and alternators. All of them said that starters and alternators are strange animals, sometimes they work fine and sometimes they don't. Just my $0.02. Good Luck.
The new starter was aroung $90.00 Looking back, I would not buy any used electrical components.
Jeff

 

Ive had the same experience a few times. BTW, it will test good. What happens is that sometimes itll start spinning b4 it engages so it just grinds. Never had this with any other car, just FB's. I just bought a re-man from autozone. Oh, the first time I got one from Discount Auto Farts (Now Advance Auto Farts) worked for 2 weeks, then it started grinding again. I thought it was something with the car, but it was the starter. Got a free replacement and this one lasted a year, then again same ****. So I said screw them and went with an autozone starter, been fine for years now.

 

the starter on mine right now is a brand new autozone starter. its really easy to replace, adrenalifeRX7. so it doesnt need to be spaced? i never had the problem with the starter just spinning, it will either engage normally or grind. rx7carl, why does it spin before it engages? is it a faulty design of the starter drive? is it fixable? i really dont feel like taking my starter apart cause they are a huge bitch to get back together unless you have the right tools, which i dont. however if there is way to fix it by taking it apart and doing something to the drive, i will do it cause i hate sitting in a movie theater parking lot with everyone looking at my car and then when i try to start it, it does that lol

edit: yea it always seems to happen more often when the car is cool, why is that?

 

bump

 

my dads old 7 used to grind, i pulled the motor last year because i was going to rebuild it and someone had welded the flywheel from where the starter mounts to try to fix it...pretty weird. obviously didnt work, the flywheel is junk anyways though, so isnt the motor haha, all messed up inside. not mine or my dads fault though. came like that haha

 

only fix I know of is to take it back and tell em you want a new one. Tell em what its doing, and you musta got a bad rebuild.

 

rx7carl, i might do that, that is if i can find the receipt . do you know what causes it to spin b4 engaging and why a bad rebuild would let it happen. maybe i can fix it.

 

Something I've noticed that may be the cause of the grinding.. many rebuilt starters only have their brushes and stuff like that replaced, the bendix is a cleaned up, but still used piece. For some reason the teeth on those things seem to wear down relatively quickly. I've replaced starters on a couple of these things and every time I get an el cheapo rebuilt unit it'll just zing the flywheel now and then.. if I get the "deluxe" rebuilt starter, I NEVER have a problem with it... next time ya have your starter off, just take a look at the drive teeth...

--Danny

 

Autozone keeps all that lifetime warranty **** on computer, you dont need a recipt.

 

ill do that tommorow. where do i get once of these deluxe rebuilt ones you speak of?

edit: rx7carl, really? awesome! looks like ill be taking a trip up there soon. damn they see me like everyday

 

I'm partial, but I prefer NAPA stuff... they have 2 grades of rebuilt stuff... Make sure you get a starter with a BLUE box.. number should look something like 44-xxxx.. those are the better ones...

--Danny