[builtfordtough]

hey, i am having troubles with my starter grinding on the flywheel, its on a 351 windsor ford motor,its a brand new starter and flywheel, i dont have much experience so ive had a lot of people tell me what it could be. When i go to start it sometimes it acts like the starter is just grazing the flywheel, when it does that ive tried to turn the flywheel a little and it will catch it the first few cranks but then goes back to grinding, i dont have much info to go on beings im inexperienced with starters but i could use some insight

[DR132]

from the sounds of your description the drive may be bad in the starter...you might hear some people, especially old school types, call it the "bendix" which brings up the question, what does new mean? is it a re manufactured unit or is it all new and was it a cheapo starter etc? another possibility, are you positive the flywheel matches the starter you're using? or that the starter is actually the correct one, it's possible that you have a short version that bolts up but does not stick far enough in to fully engage the flywheel. i'm not much of a ford guy but i know there are a lot more parts options out there that do not interchange. perhaps someone sold you a starter for a different 351? just food for thought...anyway starters are pretty simple really, in basic terms they're high torque electric motors and when you apply power to the solenoid it engages the drive gear with the flywheel and spins the engine over. good luck.

[timothale]

Loose starter bolts will do that and if you keep grinding with a loose starter you will ruin the teeth on the flywheel and have to pull the trans to replace it.

[builtfordtough]

Would anybody think that maybe the starter has short amout of teeth compare to the flywheel, my flywheel has 174 teeth and my starter i think has 9, would an 11 tooth drive starter help me out?