I've read that these starters have some kind of cam or lock that locks the start gear until a certain speed. The starter ,new, that I put in started the car but remained locked while the engine fired up. Not sure if I put it in right (was born in 59 so my first attempt on working such a car) or is the starter bad. I can bench the starter and at full revs it'll unlock so I'm thinking I did something wrong installing it. Any tricks or suggestions would be helpful. Old starter I got was able to unlock it but about 1/8 play on the shaft new one the same.
Which engine? I think the YBlock is same as mine. After reinstalling mine (59’ 223” I-6) it was howling like crazy, not necessarily sticking but I knew it wasn’t right. I pulled it back out, cleaned the bendix really good and lubed it with some graphite dry spray lube. Then I lubed the gear with extreme pressure grease. As I installed it, I paid extra attention to how it felt that the starter housing was seated correctly in its little pocket. Make sure the bellhousing shim (name?) is not bent. Mine was new several years ago and hardly used since. Works perfectly now. Good luck
332 engine, it's becoming more confusing since I popped the trunk on the parts car and found another starter and it looks different. The parts car has a y block.
Ah maybe the early FE has the YBlock bellhousing & starter(?) Mine looks like the picture you posted. I’m pretty sure my 68 360 FE is different, without the bendix on the end.
A later model FE starter (332, 352, 390, etc.) should fit fine if you would prefer a more modern style with the gear on the engine side of the flywheel. On a y-block a trick was to subs***ute the later style from a FE engine if the ring gear was chewed up so the teeth would engage the other good side of the gear. I have never tried to go the other way but it should work.
That is genius! The forklift at my old job had a bad ring gear. I pulled back the gearbox and flywheel and sourced a new ring gear. When I came back a few days later, my boss flipped the ring gear over told me to put it back together. Still working fine 7 years later
I flipped the ring gear on my flywheel after work, at a friend's shop. I was still dressed nicely wielding the torch on the work bench with some old brake rotors for support.
That's only half of the solution. The ring gear tooth count/gear pitch is different between the '58-64 and '65-76 FE flywheels, and while the later starter will physically fit, the mismatch will cause the gears to eventually eat each other. The other half is this: Ford FE Late Model Starter Bendix For Early Model FE Applications 1958-1964 | eBay This may also work for Y-blocks, but you'll need to do some further research to verify this. As an alternative, you can also swap the late ring gear onto the early flywheel, then you don't need the 'special' bendix.
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