Starter explosion woes

Starter started sticking and making some loud metallic noises when it cranks. Figured it was on its way out. Went to start it and it stuck then heard a loud thud/bang. Seems as though the entire shaft had broken off the motor/solenoid. Had to rock the truck in gear to pull it out it was stuck so bad. Flywheel felt/looked on, but upon new starter install the initial noise is much quieter but still there.

Happens cold or warm. Almost sounds like the starter gear isn’t engaging properly and grinding to find a gear then starts up. Is my flywheel done or what? It’s an Auto and unsure if the PO ever swapped the flywheel.

 

There's a cover on the lower half of the flywheel, pull it off and check the flywheel and see if any teeth or broken. You'll have to use a breaker bar to spin the flywheel to check all the teeth

 

@Digiratus @drr @turbodb @cruiserguy

 

Yeah I pulled it the other day and inspected what I could see and didn’t see anything. Took compressed air and blew it out the best I could. Ran a magnet around the bottom bell too. Nothing.

Will pull starter and rotate to inspect teeth this week. It sounds bad but not terrible. This transmission was built by IPT so I’m thinking maybe the flywheel was swapped at some point and maybe I broke a tooth.

 

So an automatic transmission has a flex plate, not a flywheel. Looking at the pinion gear you pulled out, I'm guessing there is definitely damage to the teeth on the flex plate. Especially if you're hearing the same noise with a new starter, there's something else going on. Pull the inspection cover and get a camera in there to check it out.

 

This sounds very familiar. Now I'm wondering if I might also have some damage to my flex plate.

 

Was able to inspect it and the teeth On the flex plate and they look fine. What’s weird is with the fresh starter it barely made any noise for a week or so then slowly it’s becoming more noisy on start up. Similar to what it sounded like prior to failing. At a loss.

 

Filmed a video of it this morning


https://youtu.be/U2bG3j73Kzc

 

That's some nasty $hit there!!

Hope you find out what that sound is. How long ago did you first notice the noise, and did it come on suddenly or just build up over time from nothing??

 

It was a slow build up. Small sticky start noises the. It got worse and worse then just failed. Put new starter in and it had a slight noise but slowly but surely it’s come back to where it is now. Will likely fail again soon.

Asked everyone I know and nobody seems to know why it would be happening.

I’m thinking possible misalignment somehow where the starter teeth aren’t syncing with the flex plate teeth.

 

Reading more and more and just wanted to add I do have a completely aftermarket IPT transmission with TRD supercharger.

Haven’t confirmed a broken flex plate, but seeing many threads where hard shifts(which my valve body does every time) can transfer vibrations to the plate and crack it. Thinking it’s prob bent and is eating up bindex gears because it won’t align.