The 81 XJ6 that had been inoperative for 17 years is now running. Initally the starter didn't engage properly, just grinded its teeth, 2 out of 3 times. I took starter apart, cleaned, put different solenoid on. Then it grinded teeth 1 out of 5 times. Better but not good enough. Ended up buying a new starter. Now it grinds teeth 1 out of 20 times, so quite rare but not satisfactory. It seem to be more when it's been standing still for a while, or just after a start.

Any ideas?

I thought about the spacer ring. Is that optional? What's it for, does it have to do with auto or man transmission?

 

I'm wondering if the flywheel has some damaged teeth.....?

Cheers
DD

 

The engine, when shut down, stops in approx 3 different places on the torque converter drive plate/flywheel.

A new drive plate/flywheel is the ideal repair but I have swapped the plate 180 degrees to get it to stop in 'NON-WORN' place where the teeth are NOT damaged.

 

It's apparantly called a spigot plate, new word for me...

 

Yes, the spacer plate needs to be there.

 

I am with Doug. One section of the rig gear on the flex plate has bad teeth.

Remove the starter. unless their is a dust shield. Point being to view the tetth and wpork on them if feasible.

Bar the engine over carefully and inspect to see it any have very rough edges.

It might be possible to access them with a file and clean them up a bit.

Or, big deal. Remove the transmission and fly wheel and get a better one

Carl

 

my 87 starter was grinding upon start probably 25% of the time. i replaced it with a rebuilt from oriellys. it still screeched away 10-15% of the time. i took it off and oriellys gave me another. it screeched from the first start so i drove it to oriellys so they could hear it. there was one problem with my theory, the starter just clicked once and went silent. the oriellys guy put their tester on it and it failed. thoroughly disgusted i was able to get it started and got it home. i replaced the old style, heavy lucas rebuilt with the new style high torque, gear reduction WOSP starter. i've been running it for about 6 months without a grind or screech. i would strongly recommend you change out your starter for one of these before swapping the flywheel or messing with shims. good luck to you. please close the loop and let us know the course of action that you took to fix your problem. ren

 

You convinced me, ordered a WOSP starter, I'll let you know...

 

I know this was well intended, but turned out to be a not a good solution. The WOSP starter is a lousy product. First, installing it, it has studs and not proper production tolerances, so they were maybe half a millimeter off, meaning that I couldn't just push it in place, I could push it half way in, then had to turn the nuts on top on bottom on top on bottom, what a pain.
It got it on, installed wires, and guess what, the old starter grinded teeth occasionally, this starter grinds teeth EVERY TIME.

The only difference is that where old starter grinded teeth and didn't turn the engine, the WOSP initally just engages, turns the engine fine, but when the engine fires the grinding starts, so it seems it doesn't pull back properly. Production tolerances again maybe?

Any ideas before I spend a few more hours going back to the old starter?

 

Sounds like there have been suggestions on what you should do...... new flex plate. You may or may not need a new starter after you have a good ring gear to work with. Just as important is setting the gear mesh clearance between the starter gear and the ring gear as well as at least 1/2 the width of the ring gear meshed with the starter. Full width mesh is ideal. You're only working with two moving parts here.

Dave

 

Just put the old starter back on. No grinding on the first 5 attempts.
WOSP product faulty. Whether I also have a ring gear issue, not concluded yet...

 

sorry to learn of your apparent wosp failure. i had 3 bad lucas starters and the wosp i put on 6 months ago with no issues installing it and it has worked great. not one grind. go figure. you should at least have them give you a new one so you can keep it as a paperweight or sell it. most importantly, glad to hear your old starter is now working good. go figure.

 

FWIW....

Many many years ago I installed 'modern gear reduction starters' on both my Series III XJ6 and my XJS V12. I don't recall what name they were sold under. In both cases I had to remove and shim the starters. Not a big problem on the XJ6....but a several-hours-long ordeal on the V12.

The overwhelming majority of owners report good results with the GR starters but, in my case, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. I put it down to "just my luck".

Cheers
DD

 

Just to follow up on WOSP starter. It's now returned, and to their credit, they paid for freight and I got my money back. They do claim nothing is wrong with it, so my XJ6 must have incorrectly spaced holes in the transmission. I doubt that, but that's their position. Regardless, I'm back where I started...

 

1. I had starter issues on my lump. Electric!!!!! A diode or perhaps two!!
The kit that I bought from Jhnscars inculded instructions for that. In a redo of relays, I neglected to include that.

2. The,architecture of my original GM Delco starter is similar to the Lucas unit in my bts shed. It masy or may not require a shim to avoid the screech.

3. I have an asian built GR starter now. Much lighter and easier to hoist in to place. Croos fingers. Cranks nicely.

4 Many decadesa go, we had a 65 Corvair. It developed starter issues. I thought it was advanced timing of the ignition. Wrong. So, I bought a rebuilt Delco. Again, very similar to the Delco. Actually more so in respect the manner in which it was installed. Odd, it had two shims of the typeusually used in suspension alignment!!! I thougth that too crude. Installed the rebuild sans the shims. Ugh, not good. Screech!!! Put them bsck Solved. Good crank, no screech.

The mesh of gers driven and drive are extremey important

Carl