So I posted last weekend about my broken Flexplate. I ordered a B&M SFI rated flexplate through Summit. Before replacement I had an intermittent pinging/tinging whatever. After installation of the new plate, the noise was louder, more metallic and consistent.

I started the truck 4-5 times, let it run for a few seconds then turned it off. Took the tranny out and could not find ANYTHING.

last night I put the tranny back in. I left the torque converter un bolted. I started it, same noise. I let it run for a bit. Definitely not in the tranny, definitely not flat or solid enough to be a rod knock. HAS to be the starter, so I started looking.

I don't know how the hell I spotted it with everything installed, but the flexplate is hitting the starter bearing in the front, where the gear comes out and stops.

the B&M flexplate is about 2-3mm too large in diameter.

Here it is lined up with the GM plate





you can see here it's barely starting to wear the starter bearing on the back half



Here i where I spotted it, in the black void (cant be seen in the pic)



Here is the bearing more worn now. The flexplate was hammering it, not scraping it






Here is a video of the sound

20130419_192321 - YouTube

 

Starter shim would fix that pretty easy.

 

I don't even know what a starter shim is, i'll look it up.

 

k I found them. How would I shim this starter though, the bolts go straight up and a shim wouldnt let the bolt holes line up.

Is there a different starter I could buy?

 

The shims will space the starter down from the block, giving more clearence for the flexplate.

 

Same thing happened to me with an aftermarket flex plate. Put about .060" worth of shim in and the noise went away.

 

Thanks guys. I'm going to put some washers in between the block and starter for now to see how much I need to make the sound go away.

 

two stainless 1/16" washers and it's fixed. Thanks for everyone's help

 

I'd rather have an actual starter shim in there than the washers. But glad you figured it out.

 

Im ordering them, I just needed to get it going. 4 hours round trip today, not a hiccup.