Well one step forwards, one step back.

Got the engine turning over, got the electrics sorted (eventually) and remembered the choke (cough eventually) pressed the big button, turned over and

she lives .......

except the starter motor is sticking on. Well i assume it is, sounds like something big, spinning something small quickly and the little thing doesn't like it.

Taken the starter off, looks perfect, pinion moves freely. any suggestions?

faulty solenoid, or poss battery not fully charged.

Ray

when its started, quickly pull the switch wire off the solenoid. Should differentiate between a wiring fault and a mechanical fault.

hmmm, hadn't considered solonoid, but when i don't have the sparks running it seems to work fine - ie when i stop pressing the button it stops spinning the motor.

Battery was fully charged this morning, i'll change over the spare and try again.

Mike are you using an inertia starter and seperate solonoid? One possible fault would be you have wired in the alternator wire to the wrong connection on the solonoid and when engine is running/alternator charging the starter has power to it ? Could be sticking solonoid especially if it is old stock/second hand . Disconnect coil positive and turn engine over on starter , if starter carries on turning after key ie released then solonoid may be faulty . or check for live feed to starter when engine is running?

Check ballast resistor wiring?

alternator not wired in.

ballast wire going direct to battery

manually using over ride wire to positive terminal

battery has 12.8volts

starter, removed cleaned, pinion moves freely, pencil graphite added to pinion.

clutch forced down

still no different

am using inertia and solonoid

suspect its not the solonoid as when i disconnect the coil it doesn't keep turning the engine but i'll give it a go bypassing it

its not the solonoid.

Can't help thinking it sounds like something not meshing when its turning (only leave it like this for a second cause what ever its doing, it isn't good).

without the coil connected etc it happily turns the engine over.

bum, really wanted to fire her up today.

What engine are you using, and is the starter the one that came with it? Also is the flywheel the original one from the engine? If the answer to either of these is NO, then you could have the wrong starter pinion for flywheel. Chippy.

Crossflow engine.

it was originally an automatic. To cut a long story short, i've got a 110 tooth inertia flywheel mated to a 10 tooth inertia starter bought off fleabay.

(and two spare pre-engaged flywheels, a spare pre-engaged motor that won't fit due to my exhaust and a spare inertia being rebuilt 'up north' by my dad).

whits end ........ not yet, going to try randomly spacing the starter with washers tomorrow to see if it makes a difference.

Just don't understand why when the engine fires its not spinning the pinion out of the way.

Not absolutely sure on this, but if not somebody will soon correct me, I seem to recall that there were two starter pinions, and if you have the one with the most teeth, and should have the other then the starter will not disengage. Hope that makes sence. I think that the starters are identical, so its just a case of getting, and fitting, the other pinion. atb Chippy

The two pinions are 9 and 10 teeth.

My understanding was the 9 teeth one was often confused (on the two bolt housing) with the mini starter. This then causes problems.

Ford changed to the three bolt starter to reduce to the risk of the starter jaming and not starting at all.

Hopefully i'm wrong, you're right and i've got the solution ........ but i need someone to confirm it.

Hi Mike, why not just get yourself a nine tooth pinion, and give it a go, cant be that much dosh. Mind you thats if you can buy the pinion as a seperate part, so often these days its, " sorry guv, only do exchange". Chippy

Dads mate used to recon electics for a living. Thats why my old starter is with him. I'm 99% sure that i need a 10 tooth pinion - but i'll let him decide he knows his stuff & has all the original manuals.

Don't think the fact that the engine was originally an auto should affect the starter . You should have possibly removed a bush from the rear of the crank and replaced with a spigot bearing. Also have you used the steel plate between the engine and gearbox? Think you normally need the one to match the gearbox you are using. From memory Fords changed from the 9 teeth pinion to the 10 teeth around the early 70s because of excessive pinion wear , it was possible to just fit the 10 teeth pinion in place of the 9 teeth using the same starter

I've got a hacked together steel plate - todays job is to hack it some more, get pi**ed off then fit one for the type 9 that fouls around the crank (after i've hacked around the crank area).

Ok, sort of lied about the engine, this is another engine i've got, but i got it without a flywheel.

Just wondering if it does have a spigot bearing as i never checked, mated the engine and box together.

Not sure with the crossflow autos but a lot of other auto engines have a bush in the rear to accept the torque convertor spigot . Spigot bearings should still be easy to get if you don't have one . A missing spigot bearing will not cause your symptoms though . Try using a decent jump lead between the solonoid and the starter after disconnecting the starter cable , after engine has started disconnect jump lead . If starter still turns then problem is with starter/flywheel again . One more thing it's possible that there is a spacer shim ? fitted to the rear of a crossflow crank when used as an auto

as i said in the previous post - this engine wasn't an auto. Its just an engine (seemed easier to explain that then to keep explaining why i didn't have a flywheel / starter combination already.

tried using a cable direct to teh starter, starts and still doesn't disengage.

Just out of interest, have you tried it with the mounting bolts loose? Not 'about to drop off' loose, but loose enough to create a bit of clearance if things are a bit tight.

my dad has just called to suggest exactly the same ........

off to the tip to then i'll give it a go.

(hopefully this is a case of great minds etc etc and it proves something but i'm not sure what)

got 30 seconds to play with the car before going to watch the england game.

Didn't make a difference. Worried its not the starter and something else.

Next plan is to start praying. if i've got enough time i'll play with the bellhousing thin plate. If i've got lots of time, i'll remove the gearbox from the engine, fit a spare bellhousing and watch what happens.

ok, ground the metal plate bigger just in case it was fouling the starter and forcing it in a direction (its a home made plate) and .........

no joy........

getting worried its something else like the gearbox input shaft or something ...... can't think what though.

Beginning to suspect your starter may be faulty? The ring gear is on the correct way? should have the chamfer on the teeth on the gearbox side of the flywheel . If you can try another starter that is known to be OK if it still has problems then it must be the flywheel/ringgear .

Not sure if you have tried this but I had to space my starter away from the bellhousing with an 8mm spacer.It is a pre engaged one however, but had the same symptoms, it bolted on ok and started the engine but would not then disegage fully, I never found out why but just put a spacer between and have had no problems since.
Paul.

this is my second starter, first is being professionally reconditioned (by my dad). Have found the new pinion is .5mm smaller than the old one!

Did get a ring gear from burtons and that just jamed on a different flywheel, didn't allow the starter to turn at all, this flywheel turns ok, just won't disengage.

Have thought about spacing it. but on my spare bell housing that doesn't have a gearbox attached its clear.

Think if i've got time at the w/e i'll remove the engine and box & set the engine up with the spare bell housing and see what happens (with impact glasses on just in case!) if no one thinks of anything else

Are you sure that the noise is coming from the starter?

If it was the wrong pinion for gearwheel, then everything would just jam up when the starter engaged.

Can't be solenoid or electrics, because as soon as the engine fires it should kick the pinion out of engagement. If the solenoid was sticking on, then once the pinion is thrown out you would hear the starter motor spinning freely under battery power.

Is the starter motor ever disengaging? Do you have any difficulty removing the motor. Can you hear if the pinion disengages when you loosen the bolts?

Assuming that you have no other ancilliaries connected, (and it's nothing internal to the engine) could it possibly be the gearbox or clutch release bearing thats making the noise? Does depressing the clutch pedal have any effect on the noise?

Just by 2p's worth

Drew

am starting to wonder the same.

tried with the clutch depressed.

Not 100% sure the clutch is the right one for the gearbox (got it second hand) so thats the next suspect ..........

if i get chance at the w/e i'll be stripping it all apart.

Any progress?

not yet - just about to get changed and go in the garage (friends been over from Finland and given the choice of the bl**dy car or the gorgeous Reetta ....... Reetta wins)

I'm sure this is a bad idea, but if your not sure its the starter sticking, then you can test this theory pretty easily, once the engine is running, try to start the car, if there is a huge grinding noise as the inertia wotsit tries to engage, then it wasnt the starter, if there is no change, then it is the starter.

never made the garage, fell asleep.

I thought the Grand Prix was boring as well !

Just had a play and the starter is definately sticking "on". Put some masking tape on the end of hte starter shaft i can see, made a point and watched it.

Dad is going to send me a new pinion that is supposed to be identical but seems to be about 1mm smaller - hopefully that will fix it.

IT WORKS



no, not loud enough........


I T W O R K S !!!!!!!!!!!!!!


hmmm, how do you shout for joy on here?

IT BLOOMING WELL WORKS!




(now do you want to know what was wrong? well replaced the pinion with a tool my dad made and a pinion my dads neighbour sourced that was .5mm smaller od. Still seemed to be failing, but, i've thought this a few times, the noise might be louder in my left ear, must be something to do with accoustics / my bad hearing balance. Anyway, in a fit of pished off ness after it was still doing it with the new pinion. I added tape to end of the starter so i could see it turning and ..... removed the alternator. Guess what, it sounds sooooooooo sweet, i mean, like REALLY sweat, dead quiet, boy its nice .......... )

ps. in case you hadn't guessed, I'M REALLY HAPPY.

I first found this problem 2 (yes two) years ago!

Who says this is a slow build?

Do you mean it was a noisy alternator , not the starter?

2 WHOLE ACTUAL YEARS??????? Blimey that's slow.

I think the noise was the alternator. I was sure the starter was sticking on but i think with hindsight it was just spinning down and i was panicing from the noise - i wasn't prepared to leave the starter running in case it went bang.

and yes, slow build ......... but i have a life, somewhere!!!

My other half just got fed up with me and let me buy one.

My other half is just fed up with me !

my other half left 4 years ago. gutted at the time, couldn't be happier now (strange how the build slowed just after she left and has never picked up speed since!!!!!!!!!)



if you're happy and you know it clap your hands...

[clap] [clap] [clap]

If I was single I think I'd have been finished by now. But i wouldn't have done anything else until it was complete mind.