Re: The Starter/Flywheel Riddle (cont.) (archive)

It is a riddle but not as difficult as the chicken and egg riddle. Something must have damaged your flywheeel and my quess is that it was the starter motor. The question is, assuming the starter is bad (i.e) it is not throwing the gear out far enough, or straight enough) has it damaged your flywheel enough to warrant replacing the gear on the flywheel (or the whole flywheel), or would a new (or properly rebuilt) starter be sufficient to catch on what are probably worn teeth.

It is much cheaper to change a starter than a flywheel, and after you pull it out, you can properly examine all of the teeth (as sugested below). They have to be pretty worn off (like 1/3 to 1/2 way) to give you consistent grinding. If you go with a new flywheel, assuming the starter does not solve the problem, it is probably better to get rid of what is probably an overly worn starter, and install a new unit anyway.

My father in law had this exact problem (albeit on a 1987 Camry) and he first changed the ring gear on the flywheel, and then one year later, had to change the starter (same symptoms, different diagnosis). At that point the ring gear was worn again but not enough to prevent the new starter from turning the engine smoothly.

Hope it works out, don't put off the repair, and sorry for the length and typos.

In the past, I've had several times when my starter has made grinding noises, some went away, and some got worse. Now, I have to try and start it 5-10 time (with the resulting obnoxious metal grinding the first 4-9 times, the last time catching and starting...)

So, the archives and other experts say it's the flywheel.

However, once the starter does engage, it works perfectly, turning the motor over as many times as need until is starts. I would think that if there were broken or missing teeth it would miss at least once per revolution.

An examination of the flywheel through the hole that the starter came out of shows no broken teeth (but could the teeth all be worn evenly?)

And, if I put a wrench on the front of the crankshaft and turn the motor to a different spot, in theory finding a different and better place on the flywheel, this seems to have no effect - it grinds a few times and then works normally.

Any guidance or thoughts would be appreciated. I'm going to pull the tranny in the morning if I don't get a better idea between now and then.

-David

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