What is this noise! Starter? - Ford Forums

Rhondakay · 10-29-2004, 11:45

We have a 90 mustang, One day we were driving down the road and it just died on us, just stopped running so we pulled over and after alot of wondering, we found out that the fan had burnt out which burnt up some wiring needed to start the car. We wired a toggle switch to the inside of the car and used that and the car started up fine.(and bought a new fan)
But after that day the car started making this horrible loud noise when we tried to start it, within a day or so youd have to start it 4-10 times just for it to start up. So we replaced the starter. After that it started alittle weak it sounded but with no noise like before. The flywheel looked alright, not too beat up and the old starters teeth were fine as well.
Well this morning my husband went to start the car and that horribly loud noise made its appearance again.
Our old starter when we checked it had become very loose and we assume that had something to do with why the old starter burned out (if thats what it did because once tightening it it still didnt want to start.) But with a brand new starter just put in what could be causing this? I thought flywheels were practically indestructable and this one barely looked worn down at all if any. What else could this be?
Were worried because its only been a week since we installed the new starter and once this noise made its appearance last time it only took a couple of days for the car to be basically unusable.

ford4v429 · 10-29-2004, 23:22

Many years back I had a 4 cylinder mercury capri that had wiring damage-sometimes the starter would stay engaged after starting- made one helluva racket- imagine the rpm of the starter gear at even idling rpm...one way 'sprag' bearing in the starter bendix will not last too many seconds before melting- starter will likely need a new bendix after only seconds of running. If continued to run, loose gear can eat up flywheel.
Ive heard of similar noises on gm cars that had starter shims left out- starter would engage and stick, but cant think of any fords that had shims- Id look into the wiring before flywheel is destroyed- they are definitely NOT indestructable, even slight damage to the ring gear will mean noisy cranking at minimum, eventually engine or trans removal to fix.
Good luck-

**Big Block Ford** · 10-30-2004, 00:55

I'm with ford4v429 on this and considering this all started after you had a wiring burn problem then I would look at the wiring. It is quite possible that the wires that run to the solenoid have also had some damage and may be keeping the starter engaged or perhaps the solenoid itself is faulty.