Weird No Start Issue.

[Meetball]

Ok, I have a Frankenstein of a toy. I have a '91 T4R with the 3.4 swap. Swap was completed about 7-8 years ago. Manual trans with auto ECU. Electric fan conversion. Recent upgrade to 4.88s with Detroit locker up front and factory e-locker out back.

A couple of years ago, I started having an intermittent starting issue. Hit the switch, get a click, and no start. Hook up the jumper cable and no dice. So, it was the starter....got it rebuilt and everything was fine for a while. Started having a few electrical gremlins, re-wired a new fuse box out of a 95.

The starting issue lurked for a while, and then over the past couple of months, it got bad enough that it wouldn't catch. It was time for a new clutch, so in goes a new clutch (same set up as what I've ran for 7 years), new flywheel, disk, plate, bearings. Get it all together and no go. Replace the starter with a reman from Autozone that I had tested before leaving the store...no go.

I can hear the starter spinning...I've been able too the whole time. It's like there is nothing there to catch, or the flywheel is blocking it. I don't know. I'm about to loose my wits with this truck.

Here's the starter making noise:

https://youtu.be/CmHzrUMeMU8

Just getting to the point to look at doing things like sliders, 35's and more and can't even drive it right now.

 

[Ahlem]

What happens if you leave the truck off, put it in 5th gear and push it a foot or two and then try to start it?

 

[superex87]

Is it me or in your video there appears to be a gap between the starter and the bell housing? Or is that just the metal dust plate I’m seeing?

You may have just gotten a bad starter. Seems like the bendix is not working. On a starter when it gets power the cintrifical force of it spinning makes the starter gear engage the flywheel and once you turn off the starter it pulls back into the starter housing.

How an Engine Starter Works Explained in Under 5 Minutes


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mattew]

I would suggest take starter out and test. Check how much bendix/gear moves and spins. Then move from that.

 

[Ahlem]

Try taking your jumper cables and create an enhanced ground from the engine block to one of the ground straps. Nothing gets connected to the Battery Plus terminal.