Lately my 84 240 DL has been sporadially refusing to start up right away. Instead, it make this bone chilling screeching sound like you would hear if you turned the key while the car was already running. After this happens I have to wait a minute or two and the car will then start right up. Sometimes it takes a few tries. I took it to my mechanic who looked at it a while and determined that the starter was bad but that from the looks of it he suspected that the fly wheel may be eating up the starter. he offered to put a starter in no charge and see what happens. if the problem continues it seems like i will have to do the fly wheel. Has anyone ever had this problem before. Is this the correct diagnosis? I understand that there is a lot of labor involved in a fly wheel job so I hope that this does not have to be done.

-tim

Tony's diagnosis is correct. Pulling the starter will show you whether you've got a sticky gear or a stripped tooth problem.

FWIW, my 164 has done this about 1 start in 200 for several years...

Tim, I don't know why the flywheel would be chewed up unless you do a lot of that starting an already started car deal. I was thinking that maybe your starter was lose causing this occasional screech. If it were lose, it would be misailigned when starting, causing it to screech and at the same time tear up the teeth on the flywheel. If your mechanic pulls the starter, he can look at the flywheel and diagnose how bad it is. If you are very lucky, the bendix gear on your starter is just gummy and it is causing the gear on teh starter not to shoot out far enough into the flywheel, then a new starter will maybe get you by. Lrt him do the starter and eyeball the flywheel.

hey tony,

thanks for replying. i will pull the starter and take it from there i guess. thanks a lot for your help.

-tim