Starter Drive Gear
 

Purchased a 39/40 ford engine a while back. No starter came with it. Has 59AB heads. This tells me there probably are some modifications to this engine. I have tried three different starters using the bracket to the pan rail. Everything lines up perfectly on the outside. Here is the issue. The diameter of the drive gear is too large to engage with flywheel gears. Not by much, but it will not engage. WHY? The starter that didn't come with the motor did work satisfactory. WHY? The flywheel may have been changed as well. Has anyone had this issue in the past?

Re: Starter Drive Gear
 

Do you have the correct bendix?

Re: Starter Drive Gear
 

Is the Bendix the new style enclosed or an original exposed spring one?

Re: Starter Drive Gear
 

Yes, all three starters are original and came off engines that worked fine.

Re: Starter Drive Gear
 

Maybe wrong flywheel.

Re: Starter Drive Gear
 

And/or wrong ring gear. Time to measure.

Re: Starter Drive Gear
 

I'm also thinking wrong flywheel. Guess a tear down is coming up, thanks for the replies.

Re: Starter Drive Gear
 

Use 32-47 flywheels on 32-47 engines. Use 49-53 flywheels on 49-53 engines. Don’t mix the two styles as the starter ring gear offset is different.

I purposefully kept 1948 engines from the above rules in order to point out the problem of not identifying the 48 engines correctly. If the 1948 engine came from a 1948 passenger car, it would be the 59A type block, which matches up with the 1932-47 rule. If the block came from a 1948 Ford truck, which would identify as the new 8BA/8RT block, the 49-53 rule applies.

Every time someone calls me for 1948 engine parts, I have to have this conversation….