I had to throw a new starter in my truck last Thursday. After that when it started it made a high pitched sound. I decided to shim it to solve that issue. Last night I drove it up to VatoZone, got some shims then went to go home. I figured I was out, hit the grocery store and bam come out it won't turn over. It now makes the sound when your truck is running already and someone turns over the ignition again when starting. I got to be towed home because nothing I did would get it started, good times.

I took out the starter today, looked it all over really well, tightened everything, checked the wires and nothing looked wrong with it. I went ahead and put a shim on and put it back on to test it out. Go to start it up, same sound.

The tow truck guy who hooked me up said it sounded like it wasn't bolted up right. Well you can only bolt it up there one way and it's up there right far as I can tell? What in the heck is this sound? Or what would cause it? Thanks.

(Truck is an 86/K5/350/5.7/Auto)

I had to throw a new starter in my truck last Thursday. After that when it started it made a high pitched sound. I decided to shim it to solve that issue. Last night I drove it up to VatoZone, got some shims then went to go home. I figured I was out, hit the grocery store and bam come out it won't turn over. It now makes the sound when your truck is running already and someone turns over the ignition again when starting. I got to be towed home because nothing I did would get it started, good times.

I took out the starter today, looked it all over really well, tightened everything, checked the wires and nothing looked wrong with it. I went ahead and put a shim on and put it back on to test it out. Go to start it up, same sound.

The tow truck guy who hooked me up said it sounded like it wasn't bolted up right. Well you can only bolt it up there one way and it's up there right far as I can tell? What in the heck is this sound? Or what would cause it? Thanks.

AC Delco for less drama.

Thanks for your usual helpful answer. :shaking:

what condition is the ring gear in? if it is junk it won't matter if you have a new starter and will make an aweful racket.

Thanks for your usual helpful answer. :shaking:

What? It sounds like you've got a shit starter. May be "new" or "rebuilt", but faulty parts right out of the box is not at all uncommon. Especially considering the stuff sold at autozone is worse than even NAPA.

what condition is the ring gear in? if it is junk it won't matter if you have a new starter and will make an aweful racket.

Looks okay from what I can tell. No broken teeth and only one or two small marks that I could see.

Just wondering if it's the starter or if it's something else in the ignition area.

all you have to do is call me. I have 2 starters youcan give a shot at one of these if it works then you know you have a bad starter

I would say x2 on a bad starter go get a differant one

all you have to do is call me. I have 2 starters youcan give a shot at one of these if it works then you know you have a bad starter

Starter is fine, I just went to both Autozone and Kragen and they both tested it and said no issues.

I did find this mark on the starter when I was standing there in line at Autozone and have to ask, would this been from the ring gear? If so, would shimming solve this issue or what?

makes me wonder if you got the wrong style theres a big nosecone and a little nosecone

makes me wonder if you got the wrong style theres a big nosecone and a little nosecone

If it was wrong, wouldn't it effect the fitment? It fit perfect as far as bolting back up.

GM blocks are all a little different--castings and machining will be off from one to another.

You're making it worse with a "cheapo" starter. Their tolerances aren't that great--stack it all together and that's why you need shims.
If it's a rebuilt starter, you're even worse off because they usually maching the "pads" that mate to the block down a small degree so it *looks* new.

It sounds to me like the starter gear was too close to the flexplate/flywheel, keeping the teeth from meshing and engaging.

When you shimmed the starter, did you put the shim on the front side or rear side? You need to get the starter teeth shimmed a touch AWAY from the flexplate/flywheel.

Most people just bolt on a starter and go...I don't hear of many people actually measuring the tolerance between the flywheel and starter gear. A proper installation would usually be a good start.
Who knows, it'll probably even work...and won't prematurely wear out the teeth on your flywheel/flexplate. :)

Never seen that nose cone like that on any of the many Chevy starters I've replaced. Usually the area where the bendix comes out is more open.

GM blocks are all a little different--castings and machining will be off from one to another.

You're making it worse with a "cheapo" starter. Their tolerances aren't that great--stack it all together and that's why you need shims.
If it's a rebuilt starter, you're even worse off because they usually maching the "pads" that mate to the block down a small degree so it *looks* new.

It sounds to me like the starter gear was too close to the flexplate/flywheel, keeping the teeth from meshing and engaging.

When you shimmed the starter, did you put the shim on the front side or rear side? You need to get the starter teeth shimmed a touch AWAY from the flexplate/flywheel.

Most people just bolt on a starter and go...I don't hear of many people actually measuring the tolerance between the flywheel and starter gear. A proper installation would usually be a good start.
Who knows, it'll probably even work...and won't prematurely wear out the teeth on your flywheel/flexplate. :)

Thanks for this post, I didn't realize some of this, started messing with fitment a little and guess what, 3rd retry I figured out the fitment and it's now perfect. Thanks!!!

Never seen that nose cone like that on any of the many Chevy starters I've replaced. Usually the area where the bendix comes out is more open.

It's like that because it's made for offroading to keep out debris.

Never seen that nose cone like that on any of the many Chevy starters I've replaced. Usually the area where the bendix comes out is more open.


X2. That looks wrong. I would go back and switch nosepieces off the core if they won't give you a different one.

that starter looks wrong the opening must be bigger or the ringgear will contact, like in your pix


this is a napa reman - this is for a 86 chevy k5 with a 350 -napa pn NAE76012 -

but it should look like this

that starter looks wrong the opening must be bigger or the ringgear will contact, like in your pix


this is a napa reman - this is for a 86 chevy k5 with a 350 -napa pn NAE76012 -

but it should look like this

Like I said above, it's like that because it's made for offroad use.

It's like that because it's made for offroading to keep out debris.

That makes sense.
For the life of me have I ever seen or heard of such a starter for a chevy truck.
Was this listed, where you purchased the starter, as an off road version?

That makes sense.
For the life of me have I ever seen or heard of such a starter for a chevy truck.
Was this listed, where you purchased the starter, as an off road version?


That's what it says in the auto zone computers. I had them tell me the same thing. Something like the cone was closed to reduce the amount of mud that can get in there to gum things up. Who knows what the real reason or intent was.

On my chevy truck I would go through a starter about once a year. I ran the limetime warranty AZ ones and would take them back for a new one. One time I got one home and it was no good. It looked just like the one I took out but it wouldn't turn. They hooked it up to the machine to test it and it fired. They took out another one from the box and the same thing. I had to go to another store to get one. Lesson, have them test it before you leave.

That makes sense.
For the life of me have I ever seen or heard of such a starter for a chevy truck.
Was this listed, where you purchased the starter, as an off road version?

I found the same one at Vatozone and listed through Napa at the stores I went to. They both were listed as offroad use with a closed in cone area to help reduce debris entering that area. Sounded good to me so I got it. I wasn't really thinking about this being an issue until someone mentioned the angles in a post and then it hit me that this was different, dee dee dee and I needed to really shim to account for it. Sometimes things are so obvious, yet not so much. :emb:

That seems backwards to me . A bigger opening will self clean easier. Go with what came from the factory.

Your right. The small opening is considered to be the 4x4 version and the large opening is the 2wd version. They both interchange with each other. I would agree with Filthy though.

from the photos i found the small nose is for a auto and the large is for manual - that is when there is a diffrence listed.

i could not find one for "offroad" - hmmmmm


iwould think the smaller would hold debrie

i could not find one for "offroad" - hmmmmm


Not sure why, I can find them just fine.

This is the one from the store that the counter guy showed me, but it's listed weird on their site... (but you can see the opening is the same)
http://www.napaonline.com/MasterPages/NOLMaster.aspx?PageId=470&LineCode=NAE&PartNumber=76017&Description=Starter+-+Remfd

Autozone...
http://www.autozone.com/R,979815/vehicleId,1122002/initialAction,partProductDetail/store,5597/partType,00045/shopping/partProductDetail.htm

Kragen...
http://shop.oreillyauto.com/ProductDetail.aspx?MfrCode=ATR&MfrPartNumber=A3733MS&PartType=123&PTSet=A

What was wrong with your origional starter? Why did you need to change it out? Was the old one shimed?