Starter Issues
 

Having problems with the starter on one motor. Blew the first one several weeks ago, Took all teeth off the bendix, cracked the housing on the nose, and put a slight bend in both bolts It started 4 times and is blown again. We will pull it tomorrow but expect the same.. Engine is a built Hawk 525SC with 8.5 to 9.0 compression. It does have CMI Headers with dry pipes. We seem to have negated the thought of hydro-lock as plugs are all identical and look normal, no water in the oil or cylinders, it has never hesitated to start , it fires instantly no hesitation like a stuck solenoid etc. it does make an intermittent noise like a chirp or screech that goes away as soon as it fires when starting and the next time sounds normal right up until its blown. Flywheel looks perfect. Thoughts, ideas???

Timing?

Locked at 32 with Daytona Box. it cranks super easy. And then it doesn't

Do you have start retard activated in the box?

I will confirm but they were set up by Tyler Crockett on the dyno.. I'm goigt to say yes. it also was fine for about 20 hours before this happened.

Is the starter shimmed correctly?

If the heavy old style block mount starter (ir: not mini high torque delco pg260) that uses a brace, but no brace installed, can do this.

It is the high torque

It was not shimmed prior to the freshening of the engines and we rebuilt the same starter. We are going to check that this time for sure. It does not have the noise that usually accompanies a shimming issue,

Are they MSD ?

I would check the rotor phasing in the dist. the start retard might be causing a problem.

They are Daytona Boxes and distributors. It is also Carburated I had not mentioned that prior.

Worth checking

You rebuilt the starter that failed? I had one years and years ago that I had my starter rebuilt and it cracked the nose housing and left me stranded on a late October day. I ended up buying a new starter and never had the problem again. Being locked in at 32 degrees with a hi torque starter should not be a problem. And I have never heard of shimming one, just saying. :D

I meant the starters....

Because of that we are doing a new starter this time. We obviously will check all else again. Hopefully we will have the same luck you did.

were they piece of **** MSD starters like these sold by a lying scumbag company?
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...2d1e5f097d.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...db77a2b38f.jpg

Nope the GM factory high torque

This one literally busted the nose off the aluminum housing, slightly bent both mounting bolts and took out the bendix. Still no obvious signs of a problem, plugs look great, no water, etc. Lost!

I think you might have a timing issue, loose wire, ground, tach or something. I had the same problem on my truck. Broke starter, cracked the side of the block where the starter bolt goes in. It appears that my crank sensor went out during the time I was cranking the engine over. Timing went funky and blew s#it up! lol.

Hard to diagnose over the Internet, but I’m thinking ignition issue,How does it crank with the ignition coil disconnected?

It cranks fine under both circumstances. Ignition and start switch are separate so I can crank without ignition enabled. With ignition on it simply fires and then it will suddenly blow s the starter

Have you looked at all of the flywheel teeth or just the ones visible with the starter removed?
Could there still be small bits of the orig bendix gears embedded/fused between the flywheel teeth?
Orig flywheel?

is this an over voltage issue ?

From what can be seen it looks okay. It is the Starboard motor so of course limited visibility. We did crank it over by hand and look at through the starter hole and it looks to be okay.

No Voltage is fine, I think that would effect the starter solenoid and motor more that this.

Thank you all, we think we have pretty much through the process of elimination determined that it is starter backup. Now to determine the root cause. the guess is that it is not retarding through the Daytona Ignition Box at start up. Just need to determine how to test and correct. Hopefully tech support will get back to me tomorrow to discuss. I will post the final answer and resolve for any others that might run into this in the future.

Did you replace the bent bolts? If so, were they the same length? I've seen bolts slightly too long going into blind holes, bottom out and convince the installer that it's tight when its just bottomed-out.

Yes new each time.

Disable the fuel supply, put a timing light on it, and crank it over watching the balancer