Destroyed my starter!

[SteelMohawk]

Just to give a little background, I was replacing the rotor and cap to my HEI distributor. When I went to start. I had the engine turnover, then pop, then it sounded like the starter was shot. I had some smoke coming out of my carb, and I pulled out the distributor and rechecked every connection and screw. Everything looked fine on the new cap and rotor, so I looked underneath. I saw a cracked starter. The housing on the drive gear shaft shattered and obviously because of the, the gear wasn't working. Thankfully I had bought this starter for its warranty and i have a new one. I was just checking to see if there is anything I should do before installing the new starter. Please help!

I know, this thread is useless without pics, but I want my blazer back, and I forgot to take pics before returning the starter.

[cdowns]

i'd check the teeth on the flywheel to make sure they didnt get damaged

[SteelMohawk]

they all looked fine. going to double check, but the replacement went in fine.

[sleepertruck72]

Steel-
I had problems with a starter and what was causing the problems was that it wasnt correctly shimmed. I had 2 from Auto Zone that cracked on me like you said. I stoppped buying parts from there anyway cuz the youngsters are idiots. But go to Napa and they have pretty detailed instructions inside on how to shim so that the gear and the flywheel turn correctly without binding the flywheel. I ended up having to replace the flywheel also because the flywheel teeth were all fubar. Not fun believe me.

[Wrenchbender Ret]

Check your fireing order & make shure the plug wires are in the right hole. The engine may have kicked back & broke the starter.

[RustyParts]

Make sure the starter has the front bracket installed to help support the weight of the starter. Most people usually throw them away the first time they change their starter.

[SteelMohawk]

Originally Posted by RustyParts

Make sure the starter has the front bracket installed to help support the weight of the starter. Most people usually throw them away the first time they change their starter.

My truck, in my ownership, didn't have one. Is this something I am going to have to find at a yard?

I think there might have been a firing order issue, or timing issue. It was all fixed yesterday, including trip to autozone and breaks from the heat, it took me about 10 hours to get everything figured out. I envy people with a garage.

sleepertruck72, i also hate buying things from autozone, I really dont like having to explain that the truck is a 72, but the PO had a 92 engine installed. THey don't understand. But the two big items I bought from them, battery and starter, had really nice warranties, including free swaps on batteries for 2 years, and a 1 year warranty on the starter.

[RustyParts]

Originally Posted by SteelMohawk

My truck, in my ownership, didn't have one. Is this something I am going to have to find at a yard?

I think there might have been a firing order issue, or timing issue. It was all fixed yesterday, including trip to autozone and breaks from the heat, it took me about 10 hours to get everything figured out. I envy people with a garage.

sleepertruck72, i also hate buying things from autozone, I really dont like having to explain that the truck is a 72, but the PO had a 92 engine installed. THey don't understand. But the two big items I bought from them, battery and starter, had really nice warranties, including free swaps on batteries for 2 years, and a 1 year warranty on the starter.

LMC catalog page showing starter brace right side of page 2nd pic down.
Good luck.