When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
A while back I mentioned a loud ‘clank’ emitted by my 65 327 when I tried to start it. This just happened again, so I thought I’d take a look a the flywheel teeth. I’m not really sure what I’m looking for in the way of damage to the teeth. I’ve examined half of the periphery and found some slight damage to some of the teeth, but nothing significant, though I’m guessing what serious damage would look like, so “significant” needs better definition. Has anyone got pics of ‘good’ and ‘bad teeth, so I can get some idea what’s acceptable. Here’s about the worst of it:
It started flawlessly hundreds of times for five years, so I doubt bad alignment is the issue. The starter bolts were also tight and the nose looks good. I’ll take a look and get some pics of the starter gear tonight.
I went through this same exercise about 6 months ago. Same thing you describe; loud clank sound would occur randomly. When I opened mine up, I found similar wear on my flywheel teeth. But, you need to go to the trouble to inspect ALL the teeth. I found a broken tooth. The good news is that after getting advice from Powermaster about how to clearance/shim my starter, and LOTS of time & effort on my part, my new starter is now shimmed/clearanced PERFECTLY and there is NO SOUND when I start the engine other than the normal sounds of a healthy starter and engine. I used paint and putty to tell how the pinion was engaging. I would crank the engine w/o fuel or spark.
After all of that, even with the broken tooth, it's fine. Had I left it poorly installed with the bad clearance and the broken tooth, no doubt it would have broken more and I would have been looking at a lot more work and money.
You guys know that the ring gear can be taken off the flywheel, turned around, reinstalled and away you go.
Or if missing/damaged teeth evident replacing the ring gear only is acceptable.
Ring gears are a whole lot cheaper than that flywheel.
Scott
2025 C8 Z06/7/E-Ray of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2023 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2021 C8 of the Year Finalist Unmodified
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C1 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2017 Corvette of the Year Finalist
2016 C2 of Year
2015 C3 of Year Finalist
When the starter solenoid doesn't function properly it fails to fully engage the starter drive onto the flywheel. That will cause that clanking sound. I just went through this.
My experience was a little different, no clunk or bang. Went to start her this spring and I occasionally got a crunch, the sound of the pinion skipping through the ring gear teeth. You immediately let go of the ignition key, try again and she is good. Week later she crunches 2x in a row so now it's time to pull the starter and take a look. I was advised about flipping or replacing the ring gear but I am a novice at all this and rather than having the surface turned I decided to do a new flywheel, clutch and have the Muncie rebuild. getting it all apart was not all that bad a job and assuming I can get it all back together i would be a happy man if this were the last time. Pulled the flywheel and am in the process of installing a new McLeod. Second step after torquing down the bolts....check the starter alignment.
You guys know that the ring gear can be taken off the flywheel, turned around, reinstalled and away you go.
Or if missing/damaged teeth evident replacing the ring gear only is acceptable.
Ring gears are a whole lot cheaper than that flywheel.
Scott
I was just getting ready to point this out. I have removed and flipped over the starter ring on many FLYWHEELS (CANNOT do it on flexplates because it is welded to the flexplate).
If the flywheel is off, and it is still in good condition, as Scott mentioned, it's a lot cheaper to do this rather than replace it-------------------and the good part is that the original flywheel is retained.
With the starter ring flipped over, have it surfaced (if needed), correctly shimmed (if needed), it will probably outlast you.
Of course it will fail in the rain when you have somewhere important to go. The replacement part is cheap. Maybe $25-$30. Replacing it is a PITA. Look at it as an opportunity to perhaps change out a clutch, throw out bearing, remain seal etc. Depending upon your age, the repair could last the life of your time with the car. . Just do it. Jerry
I’m going to inspect the rest of the ring gear teeth this afternoon. If they don’t look any worse than the ones I see now, I think maybe a solenoid swap is a good move before I start messing with the flywheel change.
So, it would appear that the chamfer on each ring gear tooth is designed to impact the chamfer on each tooth of the starter gear. The damage on one of my ring gear teeth seems to be from the impact of the starter gear’s corner, which I’d guess should not be coming into play in this. This suggests an alignment problem. Opinions?
I’m going to inspect the rest of the ring gear teeth this afternoon. If they don’t look any worse than the ones I see now, I think maybe a solenoid swap is a good move before I start messing with the flywheel change.
Verify the plunger/lever/fork assembly that thrusts the starter gear to engage is still “tight”. Those rarely get replaced and with 60 years in service the starter motor may be spinning before engagement, or not fully engaged.
My question is relevant to the thread so here it is. Just installed the new flywheel. Bolted up the starter (with it's brace as she did not have that part when I began this job). Next up was confirming the pinion/ring gap. I was not having any luck trying to get a screw driver in the starter nose to pry out the pinion so I hooked the solenoid "S" terminal up to a switch and battery (full size spare) and grounded the starter body to same. Hit the switch and the pinion jumps forward but does not have the strength to rotate the flywheel and engage the teeth. I tried muscling the flywheel to line things up but the best I have gotten is for the pinion to grab just enough to get held up when I switch off. I am keeping the tests to just a couple of seconds so as not to heat up the solenoid. I installed a 1/16" shim just to increase the gap but no joy. Now when the pinion barley grabbed and got wedged forward after the shim was in, I inserted the paperclip and it looked about right but I would feel better if it were fully engaged when I put the paper clip in.
Anyone who has done this process had a trick/advice they can share. Thanks.
Starter teeth
. Just do it. Jerry
