Flywheel teeth

jmayle · Sep 17, 2018

I have a 1993 2.3L that I rebuilt. I am having trouble with the started eating the teeth on the flywheel. I have had many 2.3L motors in the past, but never had one where the started would eat the teeth. I am on my 2nd flywheel and just ordered the 3rd. I have not had one with a spacer behind the flywheel before. I was told that I might need to shim the flywheel. How much shim should I use? I also have had 3 different starters and they all do the same.

kishy · Sep 17, 2018

I can't answer the question you specifically asked, but I will recommend you study the wiring for the starter and make sure it is correct.

With the gear reduction starters, there need to be 2 wires coming up from the solenoid on the starter, to the two posts on the fender-mounted starter relay. They must not be bridged together at the starter or at the relay, because this can cause the starter to stay engaged longer which could result in teeth damage (and other premature failures).

With the gear reduction starters that have 2 wires:
Fat wire comes from thicker post on starter up to the same post on the starter relay as the battery positive cable.
Thin wire comes from the thinner post on starter up to the 'switched' post on the starter relay which is only hot when the key is in 'start'.

Terry · Sep 17, 2018

jmayle said:
I have a 1993 2.3L that I rebuilt. I am having trouble with the started eating the teeth on the flywheel. I have had many 2.3L motors in the past, but never had one where the started would eat the teeth. I am on my 2nd flywheel and just ordered the 3rd. I have not had one with a spacer behind the flywheel before. I was told that I might need to shim the flywheel. How much shim should I use? I also have had 3 different starters and they all do the same.

I went thru everything you could think of to fix the same problem. What I did to fix the problem is replace the spacer plate between the motor and trans. The hole that the starter sits in gets worn oblong and the torque from the starter pulls the starter away from the ring gear on the flywheel. Fords do not use shims like a chevy so there is no shimming.

tomw · Sep 17, 2018

Did you put all the parts back that you removed? There is a relatively thin plate between the flywheel and the block that is shaped like the bell housing. It spaced the bell housing back some dimension from the block. If you left that out, you'd mess up the starter gear-to-ring-gear spacing. The plate must be installed before the flywheel is attached to the crankshaft. It is easy to forget in the desire to get things reassembled, but cannot be left out.
Other than that, maybe the starters you get were 'generic' re-mans(different length teeth on the starter gear?), and you should go to a boneyard and extract one that you KNOW came from a 2.3 Lima...
tom

jmayle · Sep 17, 2018

I did install the bellhousing spacer plate. But I have not been able to find a new one for a 2.3L yet. The wiring is correct and the starter is not continuing spin after the key is released. Thank you for the suggestions.

tomw · Sep 18, 2018

Do you have pics of the teeth showing the damage? The leading edge of the starter gear should be sort of pointed, with a peak. The peak is designed to divert the gear teeth one way or another, so the teeth can slide between the teeth of the ring gear.
If the gear is dulled, rounded, etc, it will wham into the ring gear teeth rather than engaging properly.
If your solenoid is worn, it may not be passing enough amperage for the starter to push the gear into correct contact. If you have the one-wire starter, it uses a winding to form its own solenoid, and push the gears to mesh, and once meshed, closes an internal contact to put the juice to the motor. The internal contact could have worn or damaged contact area also, but that would show as a weak starter, I think.
I think I'd check the solenoid, large gauge wires, ground wire & connection to block, etc making sure I had good amps available.
tom

Flywheel teeth

jmayle

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kishy

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Terry

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jmayle

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