Bendix GM Starter

GM flywheel, ring-gear

The Bendix gear on the left has a worn out shaft bushing. The flywheel on the right has 35% of its ring gear teeth damaged from miss-alignment of the gears during starter engagement.

A metallic clash / crunch noise or grinding sound may be noticed when starting an engine with parts worn like the parts in the images. A worn out starter is the most common reason you may notice a noise when starting the engine.

Ignoring grinding noises and hopping it will stop on its own is foolish. 

If you hear grinding sound when you start your engine, have it inspected right away. Replacing a worn starter is less expensive than having to replace a worn out flywheel because you waited till the engine would not start at all.

Once the teeth on the flywheel ring-gear become damaged it can lead to repetitive damage to any new starter that is installed. We do not install a starter without rotating the engine and checking all the teeth on the flywheel.

My new client had been at two other shops with his Chevy truck, and he has paid for replacing the starter 3 times over the last 18 months. The owner uses his truck for food deliveries, and engine may have up to 200 start ups a day. Upon inspecting the flywheel, it was clear that the other shops did not address the real reason the 3 replacement starters made noise and eventually quit working.

When we replace a flywheel, we almost always use an “OE” original equipment part. Aftermarket flywheels have caused us big problems in the past. If an OE part is available that’s what we use. The same can be said about starters, OE is best.

Not all aftermarket parts are bad parts, but when it comes to starters and flywheels you do not want to just use the cheapest parts.

Going cheep can lead to repetitive repairs.

Fix it right, Fix it once ~ HeyAnthonyAz.com