Another bad starter?

[WarpathEngineering]

To make a long and boring story short, I'm now on my third reman starter and the truck isn't even on the road yet. The original starter was intermittent so I replaced it. The first reman died trying to get the truck started after replacing replacing the carb, & doing a tune up. The second one died after a trip a 10 mile round trip to the muffler shop and in and out of the drive way a couple of times. Now I'm getting ready to drop in my third & am questioning what am I doing wrong. Is it possible that the Remy remans I'm getting have all been duds or am I missing something? Battery is new, cables are clean & in good shape, replaced the fusable link because it was burned up from lying across the old exhaust. All the starters sounded good when they worked and no shims were used. I'm running shorty headers, is it possible that I'm getting a lot of heat of them just idling in the driveway?

[cadillac_al]

Do you ever test them on the bench? If they work on the bench they almost always work on the vehicle. What is yours not doing?

[WarpathEngineering]

Click......nothing

[JDL]

where you getting them?

[Justins76]

I hate remans. Had bad ones out of the box. Chevy, Ford, Mopar, doesn't matter. Even if they test ok at the store, they can to fail start the motor when heated up. I bought a new Delco for piece of mind. What motor is this for?

[Dead Parrot]

All bought from same store, same brand? May be a bad batch made by a hungover crew after a Chinese holiday.

Symptoms sound like intermittent brush contact. Try tapping the bearing cup next time it happens. A 3' piece of pipe lets you do this without crawling under the truck. The new brushes need a little bit of break in running. The reman place may have skipped that step to save cost.

My $22 Autozone reman starter is in its 2nd decade, 2nd 100,000 miles and 2nd set of brushes. And it sits next to a set of ceramic coated headers.

[WarpathEngineering]

All bought from the same store KOI autoparts, the local parts supplier before all O'Reilly's & AutoZones started moving into town. All have been Remy remans. First one was a China built starter, second was made here but rebuilt in Mexico. Third one....I didn't check. If it goes out again, I'm gonna order a New Delco or Bosch from RockAuto. Think this time I might buy a late 90's gear reduction for a 5.7....should fit on my 350.

[Jeramy]

Originally Posted by WarpathEngineering

All bought from the same store KOI autoparts, the local parts supplier before all O'Reilly's & AutoZones started moving into town. All have been Remy remans. First one was a China built starter, second was made here but rebuilt in Mexico. Third one....I didn't check. If it goes out again, I'm gonna order a New Delco or Bosch from RockAuto. Think this time I might buy a late 90's gear reduction for a 5.7....should fit on my 350.

im running one on mine works great. get the bolts to match it they are slightly shorter than the ones on your direct drive starter.

[Justins76]

This is what you need. You'll need 2 of the bolts 12338064

[BLE 'BURBAN]

The best way I have found to shim a starter takes a bit of time but I have found that taking this extra time eliminates alot of headaches later on and longer starter life as well.

1. Disconnect the battery.
2. Remove flexplate dust shield from bottom of tranny.
3. Remove the starter from engine.
4. Remove starter solenoid from starter.
5. Remount starter WITHOUT the solenoid to then engine.
6. Reach up and pull back on the plunger to move the starter drive gear into the teeth of the flexplate.
7. Using a wire feeler gauge measure the gap between the tip (crest) of the tooth on the drive gear and the bottom(valley) of the teeth on the flex plate. It should be no more than .060" NOTE; A large paper clip works well for this measurement if you don't have a wire style feeler gauge
8. If it's right, put it all back together then you're good to go. However if it's too tight or too loose, then you will need to shim it.
9. If it's too tight start with a shim that's .015" thick and shim both mounting points between the starter and block then measure again. If it's too loose then shim out ONLY the outer mounting bolt to cause the starter to tilt into the block.
10. Play around with the shimming until you achieve the proper gap of .060"
whether it's by no-shim ,full shim or half shim on either bolt.
11. Once you've got it set put'er all back together and drive on.
Yes it is time consuming and tedious but you will be pleased with the end result.

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