Pinto Car Club of America

I HAVE A 73 PINTO 2.0 WITH A C4 TRANNY.  THE STARTER JUST GRINDS AWAY.  EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE IT GRABS .BUT VERY RARLY. IT SEEMS LIKE IT IS NOT DEEP ENOUGH?  HOW CAN I MAKE IT SET IN THE TRANSMISSION DEEPER? OR HOW DO STOP IT FROM JUST GRINDING ?  OR IS THE FLEX MESSED UP ?  BACK WARDS ? I AM AT A ???? END?  IT LOOKS LIKE IT IS IN RIGHT.
THANKS

It sounds to me, like the flexplate may be eaten up. The "Redneck" way to check this is to wait 'till it grinds, then rotate the engine a few degrees, with the drive belt, to see if it catches. I was taught something years ago that I didn't believe. EVERY engine, when you shut it off will only stop in one of 4 places. That's why you only see a few eaten up places on a ring gear. Yes I know someone won't believe me, but I swear if I hadnt seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't either.

Have you tried replacing the starter? If not when you have the starter out to replace inspect the flywheel. I wish I would have done that the first time... I've had 3 starters in my car before I had the flywheel replaced because I was having the same problem. Pulled the starter and turned the motor over by hand and identified chewed up teeth on the flywheel. The shop doing the work did tell me after all was put back together they started it 20 + times and one time the starter didn't grab and did the grinding thing again. Since getting the car back I didn't have any issue until... just now I got back from the store and when I started it up it did it again... grinding sound on 2 attempts to start and third one started right up.

Much better with the new flywheel but... that grinding needs to stop. The starter in the car is the "new" one the previous owner gave me w/the car. Had it installed for awhile before the flywheel was replaced... wonder if it is bad/weak now because of all the "grinding."

~or~

I wonder what caused the first flywheel to loose teath like it did and what else could cause the starter to grind?

Crazyhorse... what you just described sounds familiar... previous owner and the shop who just did the work would rotate the motor by hand and the starter worked. I just keep/kept trying till it catches.

THANKS , I THINK I WILL JUST GET A NEW FLEX PLANT AND STOP PULLING MY HAIR OUT.
I LOOKED AT IT AND ALL THE TEETH "SEEM" TO BE THERE.THEY LOOK OK. BUT THAT DOSE NOT MEAN ANY THING. I WONDER IF THE PLATE IS TO FARE FROM THE STARTER.

Yes, a new starter or starter gear can mask a warn-out flexplate or flywheel for a while, but it will only be a matter of time before it stops working.

I just got a 2.3/C4 flexplate at NAPA, it was like 40 bucks. I heard that some of them have the bolt patterns for both the 2.0 and the 2.3.

Bill