Chester Leighton
Junior Member
I have a 37 Ford truck that I got from my father. It has a 1953 8BA and a T-5 transmission. It has 12 Volt electrical. These things were done prior to his ownership. The starter has been thrashing bendix. It looks like a fairly new starter motor so I know it's not an original Ford unit. He put two bendix on while he had it and I put two on before I reduced the cable size from the old 6Volt gage down to something like a garden tractor size. This has helped and it cranks just fine but it still sounds weird like the bedix collar/counterweight is grinding against the flywheel. When I changed the first one I could see where this part had been rubbing. There is no way to add clearance, only shim and remove clearance whiich is the opposite of what I think I need to do. I noticed the first time I changed the bedix that there was an oil pan bolt missing which should have been going through the starter motor support bracket which was also missing. When I got the bracket, I had to get a longer starter motor bolt and shim the bracket so it would line up with the oil pan bolt hole. It was like the motor body was too short. All this has me wondering if there is a longer bodied motor with a longer shaft that would give more flywheel clearance and line up with the support bracket hole better?
