Starter Grind is Getting Worse

The starter every so often use to make a nice grinding noise, kind of like it didnt catch the flywheel. Now its been getting worse, bad grinding, I let off and try it again and it will normally start. I pull the starter off today (which was rebuilt last year) to take a look at the gear inside.....sure enough theres some teeth missing. There about a 4" section with out to many teeth....then the rest seems ok. So no to sound to dumb...am I looking at the fly wheel or the ring gear? Im looking in the hole where the starter goes into. Shoudl I stop drving it unitl I can get it fixed or keep going? I do nto want any metal teeth getting up into the motor. Help woudl be great! thanks...

 

Looks like what's happening is the gear in the starter is not pulling/disengaging fully and getting chewed up by the flywheel. You are looking at the ring gear on the flywheel in the hole where the starter goes.

If it constantly grinds while driving then I would'nt drive it until you get a new starter at least. If the flywheel lands on the spot with no teeth, right where the starter gear will grab, it probably won't start.

I would get another starter and check it before you install it. I would also look at replacing the ring gear on the flywheel. You should be able to knock of the ring gear and install a new one....or if the teeth are only ground down on one side of the gear you can flip it to save money. Should just tap of, getting it back on can be rough though without some c-clamps or press.

How are the teeth in the starter?

 

Thanks for the response...The teeth on the starter are fine. When I pull it out the gear will move forward and spring back without a problem. It did seem like the teeth on the starter gear were ground down on one side...but just in a 4" section. I was hoping on everything lasting for awhile before I had to start pulling the motor and tranny....but looks like that might happen sooner than I wanted. It doesnt grind at all once its started...just the initial start.

 

you don't need to pull both the engine and tranny to do the job, just drop the transmission and place a jack under the engine. I have the same thing going on, but the gear was already worn out when I put it back together, did not have the money to replace the flywheel ring at the time, so i just live with it..

 

Please check to be sure that the tooth count on your flywheel's ring gear is matching your starter. The four cylinder Willys and Jeep engines could have 3 different ring gears. Thus 3 different starters. I think that the ring gear tooth count was 96, 114, & 144 teeth. But I am probably wrong on the numbers. In any case, if your starter does not match your ring gear tooth count it will grind the teeth off of either the starter or the ring gear, or both!

Just because Your Jeep came with this starter does not mean it matches your ring gear. I had a friend who changed his ring gear about once a year, for ten years before we discovered that his starter was not correct for his ring gear. I do not remember how often we had to replace the starter! Just something to look for, Good luck, Matt W.

 

Well I pulled the starter I found out that the bolt that holds the spring to the shaft Had come loose. I think thats why I was getting a horrible sound when the starter spun. Theres a good chance that the tooth numbers do not match. My grandpa built the jeep from several parts. Im not too mechanicly inclined yet with the jeep, so droping the tranny seems like abig job to me. If I let it go for now, is there any more damage that could happen besides loosing more teeth? Im not sure where the metal shaving could go...