Starter won't disengage right away

[jlylec]

I've searched for this every way I can but most people who have starter sticking issues have them stick on permanently and its a bad solenoid. Mine stays engaged for 3-5 seconds and makes an awful crunching/grinding noise before disengaging. I was told it was the switch and replaced that. No dice. Solenoid was replaced as well and this is all on a starter with less than 500 miles on it. I shimmed it and it still does it too. Any ideas out there of what it could be? I now have two shims on there and it still does it. I probably need to pull one of the shims although I have about 3/8-1/2" gear contact. It's kind of embarrassing every time I have to start but I'm more worried about gears shearing off in the flywheel. Is that possible?

 

[Broncobowsher]

Take the shims out and fix the wiring.

Sounds like you have a mini starter with a solenoid built into it. I am sure that the little wire on the solenoid is jumped to the big feed coming off the fender solenoid.

Fix is rather simple. Un-jump that little wire and run it up to the solenoid on the fender. Take the big solenoid to starter wire and move it over to the battery side of the solenoid. That's right, 12V to the starter all the time. Take that new wire that was jumped and put that on the solenoid where the big wire was at. Fixed.

So how does this fix the problem you may ask? That new modern starter generates electricity as it coasts down. So after the fender solenoid releases the starter the coast down is powering the solenoid on the starter holding the starter gear in place. Takes a few seconds for the coast down to get slow enough to release the solenoid. If that sprag on the end of the starter ever sticks it will never release. By moving the switched feed so just the solenoid it releases cleanly and doesn't backfeed.

Get rid of the shims now. They are poorly loading the starter teeth. The teeth are not fully in contact and the stresses are more pinpoint loaded instead of evenly across the tooth of the gear.

 

[jlylec]

Take the shims out and fix the wiring.

Sounds like you have a mini starter with a solenoid built into it. I am sure that the little wire on the solenoid is jumped to the big feed coming off the fender solenoid.

Fix is rather simple. Un-jump that little wire and run it up to the solenoid on the fender. Take the big solenoid to starter wire and move it over to the battery side of the solenoid. That's right, 12V to the starter all the time. Take that new wire that was jumped and put that on the solenoid where the big wire was at. Fixed.

So how does this fix the problem you may ask? That new modern starter generates electricity as it coasts down. So after the fender solenoid releases the starter the coast down is powering the solenoid on the starter holding the starter gear in place. Takes a few seconds for the coast down to get slow enough to release the solenoid. If that sprag on the end of the starter ever sticks it will never release. By moving the switched feed so just the solenoid it releases cleanly and doesn't backfeed.

Get rid of the shims now. They are poorly loading the starter teeth. The teeth are not fully in contact and the stresses are more pinpoint loaded instead of evenly across the tooth of the gear.

ahh...and this is why i love this site! Thanks man...this sounds like exactly what i've got going on and the fix does sound rather simple.

 

[Steve83]

 

[Justafordguy]

X3, That will fix your problem. I had the same problem when I first installed my mini-starter.;D

 

[jlylec]

I realized yesterday how I may be losing it on this truck. I've been doing so many different things I've forgotten things I learned a year ago! I already learned about this last year and fixed it. Then I had a guy helping me rewire the whole truck and he must have swapped the wires. I had already wired the starter correctly with the small wire to the solenoid so literally all I had to do was move the big wire from the left side to the right side and poof. Fixed! Thanks guys. I'm nearly there. All I really have now are cosmetic and fun work things. She's running strong, dry, and every time now!

Crap I just jinxed myself!