Starter motor blown? or worse?

[blimp]

Hello all,

Gotta say before I ask my question, THANKS!! this site has been invaluable for fixing up my old '96 with almost 350k miles on it. I've saved so much money and time because of this site.

Ok, on to my troubles: I went to start up my truck this morning and it turned over once then stopped. I thought it might be a solenoid or something, but when i tried again the starter motor turns over without the engine turning over. Have I lost a tooth on the gear that the starter motor turns? The starter motor makes a loud whirrring noise and if I keep the key turned it goes faster and faster.

Thanks a bunch in advance for any advice.

[blimp]

Just noticed that the starter gear is connected to the flywheel, is that correct?

I've been having some intermittent vibration issues as well that I was attributing to a bad dual mass flywheel OR a bad injector or two, could the flywheel have gotten misaligned in there somehow?

[RcnRln]

Sounds like a starter bendix maybe.

[Tex99F-250]

I agree, sounds like the bendix. Sometimes the just stick. You can take the starter off and spray a lubricant where the bendix kick out and work it back and forth with your hand to free it up. hope this helps

[blimp]

thanks so much for the replies, sounds like its not as serious as I imagined. I'm going to stop by autozone on the way home and get a solenoid and a starter. If I can get the bendix unstuck and it appears to be moving freely i can just return the new parts.

[blimp]

replaced the starter, works great. thx again.

[CSIPSD]

Mine is cranking slower and slower... Going to do a starter this weekend...

[blimp]

nice man. mine seems to turn over 2x as fast now with a new starter.

[Woody_PSD]

How tough was it to replace? Pretty easy?

My buddy's '01 F-350 needs to replace his starter too.

[blimp]

yeah, not bad at all. not sure if the gasser 150 starter is in the same place, but there was only one bolt that was hard to get to, a 10 or 12 inch extension helped a lot.