Horrible sound in starter

[Potter]

I replaced my starter recently. And now, when I start the car, there is an absolutely bone chilling, eyeball jiggling, heart wrenching and wholly evil sound sometimes. It sounds like gears being ground into a megaphone inside an empty ceramic tiled room while you have a wicked hangover such that a pin dropping would cause you to confess to crimes you didn't even commit. Yea, it is that bad.

It is the correct starter. It is in tight. Did I miss a bushing or something?

[John Rogers]

I'd pull the starter right away and look at the teeth on the flywheel and pray they are not chewed up!!?? There are at least two different type 4 starters and a type 1 can also fit if it is one of the hi-torque type. Good luck.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

...And the parts books that at least one major chain uses call for the wrong starter. I think the correct one is SR17X in that book.

--DD

[jkeyzer]

I was having starter issues until I installed a hot start relay. I wasn't having any hot start problems at all, but for whatever reason I was not getting enough voltage at the solenoid to fully engage the starter.

Once I added the relay the starter worked and sounded a lot better.

[Arlen]

jkeyser, can you tell me more about this hot start relay?

I have problems restarting my car when its hot, sometimes it won't hold idle at a stop on a long trip--this sound familiar?

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The relay only affects the starter itself. I'd bet you have some kind of mixture problem when the engine is fully warmed up.

--DD

[Potter]

jkeyzer, you have me intrigued...........can you tell me more? I gotta be honest and admit that I don't have the foggiest idea of what a "hot start relay" actualy is (although I think I might have seen one out of the corner of my eye on a porno video once when I was in college....years and years and years ago).

[jkeyzer]

A "hot start relay" is just a 12V automotive relay you mount on or next to the starter.

The coil of the relay is connected on one side to the small gauge wire that normally goes to the starter solenoid (the ignition switch wire) and the other end to ground (like the body of the starter or the chassis).

Then you connect the common terminal of the relay to the solenoid post with the big red wire from the battery on it.

The "normally open" connection of the relay now connects to the spade terminal on the solenoid, that formerly the ignition wire connected to.

What this does is to ensure that the solenoid is triggered by the highest voltage (and current) possible, even if your igntion switch is not making a good connection or if there is too much voltage drop from the igniton switch to the solenoid. The relay will effectively boost the voltage back up to 12-13V (the battery voltage). This gives the starter solenoid an advantage in engaging the flywheel and making a good electrical connection to the starter motor.

A lot of people install the hot start relay to cure problems they have when the car has been driven for a long time and the starter stops working unless they wait a few hours - the starter just clicks or makes no noise at all until it cools off. This is because when an old starter is hot it needs a little more juice to work, and if you are marginal to start with then you will have problems when it gets hot.

I did it because I was getting intermittent poor engagement with a rebuilt starter I bought. I looked at the voltage on the igniton wire (at the solenoid) while cranking and it was 9-10V - too low. With the new relay I get at least 12V and the starter works great every time.

Some people use Ford starter solenoids and stuff but I thought that was unnecessary. I just used a little black cube 12V relay I had lying around.