skiviskaves

Thanks for the reply, yup, doing it in the car.

Got it! Sorry to waist your time. Just pulled it back with needle nose, the plate flexed a little, enough to get the screw driver in.

Trying to change the condenser, not sure how to go about getting the wire off the distributer. See photo, the screw holding the wire is too far down (and horizontal) to get a screw driver on it. What's the easy way to raise the plate to allow removal of that screw? Thanks! I'm elbows deep right now waiting for the wisdom.

I just saw one of these max4050 starters go through on ebay. The starting bid was $25 with $18 shipping, nobody even bid on it.

Update. I filed, and filed, and filed the ring gear teeth to remove rough edges, burrs, high spots and clean up. After 5 hrs of filing I was ready to reinstall my repaired starter. Extending the 3.250" male starter fit an extra 1/4" into the bell housing made me confident in the strength. I shimmed the starter 1/8" back with custom made washers in an attempt to get just the right amount of full engagement. Moment of truth, Friday night at about 11:30pm I turned the key...grind, grind, start. Again...grind, grind, start. Ok, at least the car is starting now. Got to take my first ride in her. Took the car to the Blue Ribbon Beer Run at the old Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee on Saturday, awesome event! The car has a 3-speed with push button OD, connected to a 70s Mopar rear with 273 gears (I'm told). She idles down the interstate at 65-70. Feeling good to be able to drive the car a bit, but this starter issue is still there, just not as bad. By the amount of wear on the ring gear I think it will have to be replaced. I'm hoping I can limp this setup through the summer and do the ring gear over the winter. Next step is finding the right ring gear. Some photos of the car:

Makes sense Greg. The ring gear teeth are a bit rounded off on top. The tops of the teeth have mushroomed a bit resulting in overhanging materal on the back side of the ring gear. There is notch on the front face of each ring gear tooth in the shape of the starter gear. Not sure if these notches were worn in or there by design to help with lead in. Don's ring gear certainly looks a lot better than mine. It is my understanding that this car has been started by grinding the gears for quite some time. Unfortunate that the previous owners neglected this problem and just kept grinding away.

Again, does anyone know the proper gear engagement length? Should the face of the starter gear be flush with the back of the ring gear on full engagement, or is it suppose to overlap by 1/4" like mine does. I tried shimming the PS291 stater that came with the car back 1/4" with some custom washers, still grinds, grinds, grinds! So, plan A: I have a suspision that some of the previous damage to the ring gear is causing some binding, which could have been the reason my 218 starter worked well but then cracked. I speculate that the PS291 starter may have not been assembled correctly as described above, causing the bendix not to travel in and out as designed, and causing constant engagement while the engine is running. As a result, ring gear damage. My plan is to individually and carefully file the burs and high spots off the 146 ring gear teeth. Then I plan on installing my weld repaired, remachined, properly functioning 218 starter. Turn the key and pray to God. Getting back to my question above, should I install it with shims or not, don't want to break it again, what is the proper engagement? Plan B: If plan A fails I will likely have to find a replacement ring gear. 55fargo, thank you so much for the offer. I will keep you posted.

As I mentioned, by my measurements the face of the starter gear passes the back face of the ring gear by about 1/4" It seems as though my starter might be too close as oppose to too far (like Don's). Does anyone know the position of proper engagement? Should the face of the starter gear be flush with the back of the ring gear on full engagement? While my cracked 218 starter is being welded up I tried throwing the starter (PS291) back in that came with the car, along with 1/4" of shims. Still grinding. It is possible that this starter was assembled wrong, as described in the thread referenced by garbagestate44, haven't disassembled it yet. I am having the 218 cone housing weld repaired and adding an extra pass or two of weld over the bellhousing fit area of the housing. I plan to machine the fit 1/4 longer to maintain alignment when shimming this starter out away from the bellhousing. I'm still not positive that any of my starters are correct for this ring gear application. The fact remains that I may have to change the ring gear not only because the application may be wrong, but also because the teeth may be too worn after being ground on by the previous owners for so long. In summary, my ring gear may or may not be shot and/or (1) of my starters may be assembled incorrectly. Not sure if I have the correct starter/ring gear combo. How much gear engagement should there be? If I do need to start replacing parts (specifically the ring gear) what should I get and where do I find it, any suggestions?

Starter is not foot type, it cranks with the key. Both the starter I removed and the 218 starter are 6V powered by 12V. The previous 2 owners of the car have had the same issue but always managed to start the car with some grinding. After putting in the 218 starter and hearing it crank so well with no grinding I was so excited, and then clunk. The 218 cone is currently being weld repaired by a friend who is awesome with cast.

Got the car. Tried to start it and as advertised lots of grinding and then the starter spins free. The starter from my 40 Plymouth with stock 218 has the same cone and gear as the starter that came with the car but the body is slightly skinnier and slightly longer. I tried throwing in the 218 starter and it turned the ring gear with no grinding at all, the car started and ran great. Got two good starts this way with no grinding, then on the third start there was a clunk when I turned the key, but the car started right away. Forth attempt, grinding. Pulled the 218 starter out to find the cone casting had broken off! Inspection: the tops of the ring gear teeth are worn and slightly mushroomed but not terrible. The ring gear is held on by 8 bolts to the crank. Not sure how to identify the bell housing, the trans is 3-speed with push button overdrive advertised as a 1936. When the starter engages the ring gear the face of the starter gear passes the back face of the ring gear by about 1/4" with my 218 starter which moves in and out. It seems as though the starter gear from the starter I removed from the car (PS291 cast in cone) does not retract very far (does not move in and out when turned by hand). Where do I go from here? . Thanks! Sorry posting from phone and can't add pics.

Thanks for the replies. Problem is I posted prematurely. I just bought the car, it is currently on a truck headed toward my house, scheduled to arrive Sunday...I haven't even seen the car in person yet; crazy I know. I'm going off what the seller told me, which is that there is a horrible grinding. He said the flywheel has 146 teeth, counted by hand, and that the starter has 9...which doesn't divide out quite even. Thus I assume the starter is wrong for the car. The teeth may have been counted wrong too. It's a '51 Spitfire engine mated to a '36 3-speed w/OD, in a '36 Chrysler coupe. I'll be able to give more info when the car arrives, just wanted to get a jump on this issue so that I can start enjoying the car ASAP.

I just bought a '36 Chrysler coupe with a '51 Chrylser spitfire flatty. The starter that is in it makes an aweful grinding noise. I don't believe it has the correct starter in it, gears dont mesh properly and there is no solinoid on the outside of the starter. The car is 12V. What should I be using with this and where can I find it? Is there a suitable replacement starter, or do I need to find an original starter and then change to a 12V solinoid? Thanks in advance!!!

Yup, I've got a gravity feed setup to the carb right now. Also, before each start attempt I have been dumpin a little gas straight into the carb, starting fluid too...notta pop.

Thanks Merle. I haven't check compression yet...probably should have done that a long time ago. I'm grabbing a compression tester from my buddy at work today. To me it sounds pretty good turning over, aside from it turning pretty slow. It feels like strong compression with my thumb over the #1 hole but I haven't done that on all cylinders. It builds good oil pressure according to the gauge.

Hey, greg g posted about my starting problems a few days ago. I usually hang out on the hamb but also lurk around this forum for the great info here. I've been try to get my 40 Plymouth started after about 25 years in hibernation. Here's what I've done so far during the troubleshooting: started by dumping some marvel mystery oil in each cylinder and letting it sit for a few days...the motor turns nice. Installed rebuilt starter, new battery, new plugs and wires, for trouble shooting purposes I doubled the hot wire from the batt to make sure there was enough juice getting there, added extra ground wire from cylinder head to frame, new wire connections to the coil, cleaned points, did a slight timing adjustment based on instructions from a "Motor's auto repair manual" from 1955. I have spark but per a check with a tester last night it is not strong. She turns and turns but notta pop to be heard. I am thinking the next step will be new condenser/capacitor, maybe new points. Are these shelf items at Napa or local farm store? Any other ideas? My thread on the hamb can be read here and it will detail my trials thus far: http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=580720&showall=1 I'm also looking for a new fan belt...anyone know where one can be found? Thanks!!!! Bill