Starter gear not grabbing after tranny swap

[genzaroff]

Here's the deal, I helped my buddy do a tranny swap on his 92 Talon 2.0L non-turbo with a 5 speed and the swap actually went rather well. From the start we noticed a few little things different about the two transmission units like the tranny mount point had one bolt hole higher then the other compared to the transmission that was origionally in the car.

The breakdown of the problem is as follows: when turning the key the starter sounds like it's skipping over the flywheel ring gear and only makes a grinding noise. We removed the starter and bench tested it and the unit worked fine. The pinion gear on the starter shows no abnormal wear and the ring gear on the flywheel is fine as well. We've removed and installed the starter several times but we're at a loss on this one. If anyone can help please do!

 

[BISHILVR]

auto and stick models use two different starters, one has a long nose and the other a short nose, i'd say go get the right starter for the stick tranny before you end up ruining the ring gear.......

 

[Lordpaxin]

^^^ what he said

 

[genzaroff]

I didn't know about the two different starters, but I figured since we were swapping a manual for a manual it wouldn't make any difference. Is there a chance that the starter we were using before was wrong? I mean the car worked before we did the tranny swap but it doesn't want to operate now. I'll look into a starter out of the auto car just as a reference.

Thanks

 

[Lordpaxin]

What?

 

[genzaroff]

^ Yes that's exactly what I'm saying.

Anyway here's the update and some more information (also I'm going to see if I can't get some pics up). My buddy knew that the tranny that was originally in his car was a junker so I can only imagine where that's been. He ended up blowing out 1st and 2nd gears (nothing on the stick and even in neutral the car wouldn't roll) and he ordered a used tranny from a 93 Talon I believe. His original transmission had a metal shim between the bell housing and the block which I'm guessing was a starter shim since it did nothing but space the starter out a bit. We tried starting the car with this shim in place and without it but both times it was a no go. However the starter gear does seem to grind more when the shim is out of the car if that makes any since.

So the current problem is the same, the starter doesn't make contact with the flywheel ring gear and the bendix gear on the starter as well as the teeth on the flywheel are in great shape. Could the starter just need to be reshimed?

 

[BISHILVR]

different years of dsm's come with different length starter nose.....

 

[Ruby]

I am new to DSM but I ended up with a 93 laser (1.8L manual) and a month later with a 91 2.0L auto eclipse. the laser ran but power sucked and the tranny had this howl noise when I let off the gas pedal in 1st and 2nd gear. the eclipse had a shot tranny but Its so clean. So I did a auto to manual swap using parts from the laser and then I found out that the flywheel did not fit. I found another 1990 laser but this one was turbo FWD(head gasket blown, what a shame. I told my friend to take the turbocharger). I have been browsing thru this site since Feb by the way but the flywheel thing slipped by me. I knew the tranny was not the same code but I went and got the tranny of the 90 turbo laser, the flywheel, shifter, brackets, tranny mount to body since it looked lower(glad I did). I got it all in there after 40 hours, this included the trips to get the oops I should have gotten this and that and taking parts off the donor cars. In the end I have the same problem. Car does the click, click; sometimes the starter noise but not turning the engine. Car starts if I push it. No reverse lights neither but I can fix that easy. So, should I get the starter off the turbo laser?