My starter teeth broke or maybe the flywheel teeth, wont know until this afternoon. As stupid as this sounds, how do I know what starter to buy? I have a 79 ltd motor on a 73 maverick with a 74 comet transmission. Do I order for the LTD or the Comet. Are all c4 starter areas the same? I think I bought a maverick starter last time and it made a wierd noise everytime I would start it like metal scrapping, maybe thats why it died in less than 30 starts?
If you had the wrong starter the last time (and it sounds like you did)....you need to find the correct starter for what set-up you have. Hopefully somebody can help you out on here.
Auto trans starters have a different length nose cone than manual trans starters. The wrong one will tear up the teeth on the ring gear. Ask me how I know... IIRC, the short nose is for a manual trans flywheel, longer nose for an automatic. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
With the combo he's got, it's entirely possible he's missing the block plate between the engine and bellhousing that indexes the starter, this could also be the cause of the short lived starter and teeth. Be a good idea to check to see if it's in there or not.
Well bad news a good 7 inchs is shaved off the flexplate. Looks like in dropping the tranny again....... I do have the separator plate that goes between the tranny and engine. I have the wrong starter and flexplate. It's the correct balance and tooth count, but not compatible with my engine. I looked it up earlier. Took so long to get it running and legal now I'm stuck again.
If it's the correct balance and tooth count, it's the wrong flexplate for the transmission. Either size flexplate will work on any 302.
So with that being said I should buy a flexplate for a 74 comet and get the comet starter as well? Just curious but arent the comet and maverick pretty much the same parts? I bought a flexplate for a 73 maverick and the starter too, I would think those should be interchangeable between the car and the years being so close. Please correct me if im wrong, I just want to get it right this time and have it run for more than a week.
What year is the motor you are running? Is it a late 5.0L? I installed a junkyard late model small started on my 250 I6 with no problem. You might try the small starter. By the way I have a flexplate and starter from a 74 Comet V8. Sent you a PM. Rick
Rick, The motor is from a 79 Ford LTD, Torino, Fairelane is what the decoding told me. So I've been buying parts for the LTD and they have all fitted fine, except I bought the maverick flexplate and starter. I will be more than happy to buy the ones you have. PM me with a price and would friday in the morning work for you to stop by and get them?
Get a starter for a 5.0 Explorer. Lots smaller, lighter, easier to put on. Have to change the way it's wired a bit, but it's real easy to do.
A 79 LTD would have come with a big bell C-4 or an FMX(or maybe even a small block C-6) transmission, all of which used a 164 tooth flexplate. Be that as it may, if you used a flexplate for the 73-74 Comet/Maverick, and the starter for such, it should have all worked. Your engine needs a 28 oz/in flexplate, the size (tooth count)flexplate depends on what transmission you're using.
Correct, It did come with an FMX that I couldnt use because of the spline count. I bought a 66 mustand c4 and bought a seperator plate that matched it. When I went to install it I realized the transmission bell housing wouldnt fit around the original LTD 164 tooth flex plate so I bought a 157 tooth 28 oz for a 73 maverick since oreillys and autozone only had 164's for th LTD. It all worked except for the trans was crap and wouldnt shift past 1st gear. Bought another transmission from Rick, thanks again to Rick for a perfect working 74 comet C4! With everything installed it worked fine for a while until I got it inspected and then it started making scratching noise near the starter. I drove it for about a week and no issues. Woke up to go to work and it just made a loud noise and buzzing from the starter and wouldnt turn over. Just my luck!
Sounds like the starter bolts may have backed out and caused the destruction. Using the wrong size and or length bolts can do this, as will stripped or worn out threads in the bolt holes in the bellhousing. Lack of lockwashers on the bolts will do it too. You could have possibly used the FMX, all you needed was a 31 spline yoke. Lots of people put em down, but they were tough trasnmissions, tougher than a stock C-4. That's why they hung around longer(well they started well before the C-4) than the C-4 in production. The AOD was based on it. I've got a crap load of 31 spline yokes collecting dust you can have one for the cost of shipping it, if you need one.
