Starter Hung Up - Update

[Lembomw]

Well, that was fun. I tried all the suggestions provided by the responders yesterday evening.

Put the car in 4th gear and rocked back and forth…..starter did not unlock.

Whacked the starter housing a few times with a 2 x 4 and hammer…nothing.

Removed the starter bolts and tired to wiggle it out…..nope.

Took out the long screws from the starter housing and removed the outer case leaving just the armature, wiggled the armature....nothing.

Tapped the front of the armature with hammer and 2 x 4 then tried wiggling….nothing.

Tried prying the pinon gear back from inside the bellhousing through that inspection hole….would not budge.

Nothing to lose at this point so got out my trusty sawzall reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade and had at it. I was able to pry the end of the starter case away from the bellhousing just enough to get a long blade in there and cut the shaft. Went through it like butter.

Once I could see the flywheel and the pinion gear it as clear what was making it “stuck”. The pinion gear was slammed with so much force forward that the metal shield (or whatever you call that thing) behind the pinion gear was driven into the flywheel teeth and was lodged there. Took it off the flywheel and when removing the pinion from the threaded sleeve little broken parts fell out. I guess they were jamming thing from the inside also.

The flywheel looks fine.

Now it is just a matter of getting rid of the metal filings that are left in the bellhousing.

I don’t know if I want to put a regular starter in there again even if converted to 12V. Seems like there are many people who have problems with the stuck stock starters and I do not want to be cutting them off every few months. Does anyone have experience with the Gear Reduced Starter that Snyder’s has? It says it is for the 12V systems so the gear does not slam into the ring gear as hard as a stock starter does.

Again, thank you for all your suggestions. Unfortunately the easy way did not work for me this time.

Mark

[H. L. Chauvin]

Mark,

You should have called the U. S. Defense Department -- they may have wanted your starter to propel rockets to the moon.

I have been using a regular starter with the under $25.00 modern Bendix drive with no problems.

[Lembomw]

Yeah, I could not believe it when I saw it. However, I did hit the starter rod several times in quick succession so maybe that had something to do with it. Don't know if having a 12V system and a 12V starter with the modern bendix drive would have made it more of a powerful snap of the pinion to the flywheel gear, but boy that thing was really on there.

Mark

[Bob C]

Look at the pictures in posts 12 and 13 in this link, it may be what happened to yours.
https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showth...+starter+drive

Bob

[Lembomw]

Hey Bob, the pictures look exactly what mine looks like, all chewed up at the back of the gear into the metal behind it.

I wanted to keep the foot operated starter on the car as it was the only thing left other than the mechanical brakes that is "old school". However I don't want to have to deal with stuck starters any more so today I ordered one of the Gear Reduced Starters from Snyders. He said that with this starter there will be no more stuck starter problems. I hope so.

Mark

[Willie Krash]

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IMHO the gear reduction starter that Snyder's list is one of the best designs in the world. This is the starter that Toyota, Honda and Subaru have used for years. We use Nippon Denso style starter in cross application quite a bit. If the housing is designed correctly it will last for years. Most are 1.5 to 1.8 KW. They will effortlessly turn over a large V-8.
I use a Ford model A starter personally. What can I say? Oh and 6V to boot.

Just for trivia Denso has a 30 pound starter based on this design that spins semi-diesel trucks effortlessly. They are all ball bearing. If you have a Ford diesel pick up it is the one to buy when it's replacement time.

[Lembomw]

That is good to hear Mike. I built my Tudor to be dependable and safe. Original stuff was replaced but it still looks like a '30 Tudor only a little faster, hopefully better gas mileage and easier to drive. We will see if it all works together and turns out the way I wanted.

Mark