1987 420SEL Starter screeching not engaging to engine sometimes
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 12
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From: Beverly, Ma
1987 420SEL
1987 420SEL Starter screeching not engaging to engine sometimes
I have a 1987 420 sel, great car but every once in a while i will go to start the car or shut it off then return 15 mins later and turn the key i hear the fuel pump start all the lights come on the starter turns then this horrible screeching noise and the motor dosent turn but the strange thing is the RPM shoots over to max i think its about 8 - 9 thousand RPM's. i shut the key off take it out put it back in and it dose the same thing, wait about 15 mins come back and it starts fine. that or i take a screw driver seance i cant put a socket and breaker bar on the crankshaft pulley wheel because the fan is in the way so i jam a screw driver in the bolts of the fan clutch and turn the engine a little bit so the ring gear wont be on the same spot on the starter. get in and it starts fine. now it has been doing it more often so ive been keeping a big screwdriver in the trunk so i don't have to call a tow truck.
any help would be great thanks,
Nick
any help would be great thanks,
Nick
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,254
Likes: 15
From: Louisiana
03 E500 and Corvette
If you haven't damaged the flywheel it is probably the starter drive not engaging full. You might be able to rebuild the starter but consider a new one. I had a 77 olds at 100000 miles do this and roll over 1/3 of the flywheel teeth
. So I figured I needed to pull the transmission and put on a new wheel. I bought the flywheel but had not installed. I decided to use a dremel on the teeth to polish/shape the burrs off the rolled teeth. Wow after doing that it never missed engagement. The starter always engaged. A friend of mine bought the car and drove it another 125,000 miles on the same starter and it never ground again. Finally the engine died.So you might be able to massage the teeth on the flywheel. But I would immediately pull the starter and replace with flywheel inspection.
