Starter ring and starter teeth

Tombredone

New member
Minimum amount of bodylift for a belly up?

Recently my Jeep failed to start!! The starter buzzed like bees, but no contact.. I took the starter off and the the outedge of the starter gear teeth were rubbed down.. I looked into the belly of the jeep and the starter ring, flywheel, also was rubbed a bit on the edges.. The starter fits snuggly.. why do you think this would do this....??? And for the second part of my question.. How hard is it to replace the flywheel and how do I do it???

body of '82 CJ5,, engine and transmission of a '79 CJ5 6cycl

Thanks
THomas
 

You need to pull the transmission and replace the flywheel or flexplate, whichever you have. Then get a new starter.
One of two things has happened: you either have the wrong starter and flywheel combo or the spring that shifts the starter gear into positon isn't engaging fully.
As long as we are on the subject, has anyone ever shimmed a Jeep starter? I have never tried it. I don't really see how you could with the bolts horizontally mounted through the block and transmission. I guess you could round out the holes and use some shims and replace the one threaded hole with a bolt and nut. Sounds kind of ghetto fabbed though.
 
If it's a manual transmission, I would just replace the starter ring on the flywheel. After you drop the transmission to get to it though, the bolts holding the flywheel on are extremely hard to get off. Mine took a breaker bar and a cheater to break loose. The gear cost about $25 at Advance and it cost me about $12 to get a local shop replace it for me. You need to torque the bolts when you reinstall the flywheel to about 125 LBS AND then turn another 60 degrees after that. It's definitely not a 1 hour job. If you have an automatic, I would just replace the whole flex plate.
 
If the outer edge is all that is worn go get a new starter that fits right and keep driving if you have most of the teath left. From what you discribe is sounds like you are saying just the outside is warn a little which is where the starter engages. When your starter goes bad it will not engage the starter all the way if any. This can also happen with a low battery. teath are baddly damaged then replace the ring but it sounds to me like just a little wear from what you have posted.
 
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