88' K1500 Silverado - Starter Grinding

[Wheeler88]

I have a problem with my starter that I have been ignoring for years and was wondering whats causing it and how best to fix it. My starter seems to randomly not engage when I try to start the truck. I just get loud grinding noise when I turn the key. The starter died while on an out of town trip a few years ago and the new starter is doing the same thing. It's happening more frequently now. It can take 5 or more tries at starting before it engages. Very annoying not to mention hard on the starter.

Any suggestion for how to fix this?

[bigdaddy1832]

Did you get a warranty with the new starter? I had to swap my starter out three times till I got a good one. Another thing could be the starter might need shimmed to give it the correct spacing.

[broughy84]

it may need shimmed, or you could have a dead spot in your flexplate (that's what the flywheel is called on a automatic) anyway, your could have a few teeth missing. I had that problem on a 84 G20 van, and a new flexplate fixed it. I would try shimming the starter out first to see if this will fix it before droping the tranny!

[Wheeler88]

Thanks for the info! I was able to google this "How to" from your replies. Apparently its such a common problem that there is a aftermarket shim kit for this.
http://www.carcraft.com/howto/2988/index3.html

Thanks again.