Hi all:

The starter on my 1981 RX7 S suddenly won't engage. I pulled into a Chipotle, got dinner and went to start the car but the starter would not engage. I could tell it was trying but it was like the starter gear could not mesh with the flywheel ring gear. The car runs perfectly... I had a couple of guys give me a push start and the car ran perfectly. The starter that is in it is not the OEM one as the car has about 140k miles on it (I'm the original owner so i know all the history) and I replace the starter a number of years ago. I should mention that the car has a SPEC clutch and light weight flywheel in it but as I said all of that was installed a number of years ago (probably 50,000 miles ago) and it has always worked since... up until this incident. I will mention that with the aftermarket starter/SPEC flywheel combo every once in a while the starter would not engage but if I retried once or twice it would always engage and start the car. That never happened with the OEM original starter so I assume that the tolerances were slight different.

I thought that perhaps the started solenoid and/or bendix was not working properly so I bought a new replacement starter (not OEM) and that is having the same issue, the starter gear won't engage the flywheel. It just clicks as if it's trying but won't engage.

Has anyone ever encountered this problem or have any idea what it could be? I've looked at the flywheel gear through the starter hole and it looks good and both the old starter and new one look fine too. Before I go to the trouble of pulling the driveshaft & transmission so that I can see everything I'm hoping someone may be able to give me some direction. I'm suspicious of the starter to be honest.

Thanks in advance!

Tom

 

The gear teeth on the fly wheel could be worn, but it wouldn't affect the starter gear from moving to engage or turning over. Have you bench tested either starter to see if the bendix kicks the gear out and then it spins? Wouldn't be unheard of to purchase a re built unit that is faulty either. If they test good, then I'd start looking at the wring to it, to include the ground cable.

 

I have had starter issue sand went through 4 remanufactured ones before getting one that has now been working for 6 months. They were all remanufactured purchased from a big box autopart store, three ended up slow cranking then doing nothing and one went up in smoke at the gas station. I went and changed the power and ground cables too with new ones as the ground cable had been rubbing on the chassis wearing away the coating, and cleaned up the grounding point on the drivers side strut tower to ensure it was getting a good ground.

 

I had a similar problem a long time ago. It was somewhat intermittent, but didn't need to be. The starter was working properly, but the ring gear had come loose from the flywheel. Thus the starter was spinning the ring gear, but not the flywheel/engine. The solution was to pull the starter and spot weld the ring gear in several places. Worked fine after that. I posted about this sometime in the past and even posted the spotwelded flywheel/ring gear for sale. Kind find any of those posts, because the search function doesn't currently seem to be able to find anything before 2024.

There was kind of a high pitched zinging sound while the ring gear was spinning on the flywheel.

Good luck whatever it is

Carl

 

Thanks for the input! I don't think it's the ring gear (worn teeth or being loose) but will double check. I've never replaced the Power and Ground Cables. They look good since the car has never sat out in the rain or been driven in snow but after 40+ years may have internal corrosion. I'll check the Ground Point as well.

I did purchase a Relay kit to provide more power to the starter. Didn't help. Still a click like the bendix is trying to move but can't. So strange!