Starter Clunked and Now Makes Angry Noise

[mr48chev]

Originally Posted by dirtyd_nd

If you replaced the starter and it started doing that, I would say shims. If it just started making the noise after working for how ever long, it's the starter. Stock starters have a plastic planetary gear set up and and will strip out fairly easy. Mine started doing the same thing. Took it to a guy that rebuilds starters and it was fixed in 30 minutes for $30.
Dale

I'm just curious as to what kind of rig you were working on as in 40 years of playing with GM cars and trucks I have never seen a Delco starter with a Planetary gear set on a V8 GM engine.

[Mike Quillici]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

There should be a support strap (looks like a piece of curved angle iron) that goes from the stud sticking out of the top bolt on the end of the starter housing to the block. That keeps the starter from trying to wiggle or bounce when you are cranking the engine. It is often left off by guys swapping starters but helps the starter live longer.

Now my curious mind wants to know what you found with the starter.

Well, it's kind of a long story. Here's what I think happened:

I bought the truck and the points distributor was loose. I'm pretty sure now that the clunk that I heard was the distributor moving when I went to start the truck. In the process of trying to get it started, I accidentally ground the starter, which wasn't shimmed properly in the first place. The grinding rounded off the edges of the starter gear, which was only just barely engaging the flex plate in the first plate. After the clunks, when the distributor moved, the truck started running terribly (timing was thrown way off). At this point, I decided to upgrade to HEI. Since then, the starter has continued to sound really bad. When I pulled it out last night, I noticed that the spacing between the starter shaft and the flex plate was way to big. So, tonight I installed a brand new (read rebuilt) starter, shimmed it properly, and she sounds great!

So far here's what's been done:
- Upgraded to HEI
- New plugs and wires
- New starter
- New exhaust
- A bunch of other small stuff

[highperf4x4]

You have a build thread for this truck?

[UltraBlue71]

Glad to hear you got her purring good again, Mike. I had to change a starter laying in 2 inches of Slush in a parking lot one time, BRRR I shiver thinking about it....I bet everyone has a story like that tho....

[highperf4x4]

Originally Posted by UltraBlue71

Glad to hear you got her purring good again, Mike. I had to change a starter laying in 2 inches of Slush in a parking lot one time, BRRR I shiver thinking about it....I bet everyone has a story like that tho....

yeah now that you mention it...........

actually I have one that isn't starter related but bad none the less. I was mudding in my old 76 chevy about 12 years ago. It was a 1/2 ton 2wd with a posi and some monster 35x12.5x15 bfg mudders on the back. I set it up for mud racing. I went out one night with some friends in a heavy rain around midnight to play in some mud and I flew off into a bar ditch on this old country road that had a pretty big burm built up from grading the road. I went forward and backward about 20 times for probably 100 yards or so but I could never get the front tires back over that burm. On the last attempt (due to epic failure) I bumped the shifter while I was hard on the throttle and knocked it from drive to reverse. Snapped the yoke off the rear-end. I had to walk back to town, pull the yoke off my other 76 and catch a ride back to the truck. I had to dig out a "trough" so I could squeeze under my truck on my back with my face plastered against the frame so I couldn't even look at what I was doing. It was extremely claustrophobic and very messy. I had to do the yoke swap with my hands behind my head at arms length. I had so many cramps it wasn't funny and it took forever. Once I got it on I was able to finally get the truck over the burm and back on the road but the gears were shot. I could feel the rear-end "jumping" and I couldn't go faster than about 30mph. Even then it sounded like a sledgehammer under the truck. I don't know how I made it home. Fortunately the next day I just swapped the rear-ends in the 2 trucks and was back in the mud again the next night!!

[UltraBlue71]

Ahh yes, yet another reason to have a parts truck on standby!

Sorry to Hijack!