<MiltRuiz506@hotmail.com> wrote:              ( '78 camaro )

My starter died and I replaced it with a Pep Boys reman which lasted less than a month.
Another replacement  Pep Boys starter lasted only a week.
So I bought one from Kragen.  They also seem to last only a couple of weeks.
If I shim the starters according to the instructions, cracks appear in the nose cone.
If I don't shim them, no cracks appear but the starter motor dies anyway.
The car is driven only 2-3 days a week.        Any ideas?

        -----------------------------------------

What is the failure mode?

What failed in the original starter that died?
What failed in the starter that lasted less than a month?
What failed in the starter that lasted a week?
Did the Kragen starter fail?
What failed in the starter that died anyway?
Do the nose cone cracks appear during installation or after starting?

It is hard to diagnose a starter problem with no description of
the problem symptoms other than "it died" or "it didn't last".
The only thing common to all of the replacement starter failures is
that you specified them and you installed them.    Perhaps there
has been an engine change and you are purchasing the wrong
starter.   Or perhaps your starter does need a shim, but not the
shim you are using.     When you shim it, confirm that the gear
clearance is correct as specified.   If not, add or subtract shims
until it is.

Good luck.

Rodan.

If you are cracking the nose support, I would look carefully
at the flywheel/flex plate for wear.  The shims are to set
the correct radial depth of engagement.  Removing too many
shims will make it too tight.  An unevenly worn ring gear on
the flywheel may have a radial runout causing the starter
nose to crack which is telling you to add shimming unless
you have way too many shims and it is trying to jump out of
engage because of not enough depth.

Lugnut

You don't say the failure symptoms but you mention shims and cracks so I
figure zing zing zing failure?

You aren't going to like my answer, but when that has happened to me, it
was a dead flywheel.  The teeth were worn down so they wouldn't hold the
starter gear stable causing it to jump teeth which cracks nose cones
while eating more of the ring gear.

I had a 'lifetime' warranty starter do this to me because the pricks
didn't put a new nose bushing in during their 'rebuild'.  This caused
the first skipping which caused every other starter after to die really
early.  Mine didn't have shims to play with.

I had to pull the motor to change the ring gear.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's - Gone to the rust pile...
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