I recently purchase a 83 720, five speed manual w/ z24 motor. I cannot get the ring gear on the flywheel and the drive gear of the starter to mesh up correctly. My first symtom were that starter would engage but the not touch the flywheel. Took starter of and bench tested it, drive gear engages. Put the stater back on the truck and it would grind, but the engine started 3 times but then I was back to square one. I pulled the starter one more time, checked the flywheel, not much of the teeth were shaved off, maybe 2/16 of an inch was missing. I noticed that the shaft on the stater could be moved a little bit by hand. I did not think that this was enough to be causing my problem. I check the fly wheel to see if it was loose and that was not a problem. I put a remanufactured starter on and I grinding noise got worse. One thing that I noticed when putting the new starter on was that it sat more snug in the it mounting place that the old stater did.(You know how you put the part in place before you bolt it on.)My father told me he had this similar problem with an Astro van the he bought. He had to keep using the nose cone from the original starter or the starter would bind up. I hope I do not have to do that because I do not have the original starter. Has any one had this problem?

There is a washer on the bolts, is that supposed to go between the starter and the bell housing and act as a shim?

Modified by dogred at 11:58 AM 5/26/2009

Modified by dogred at 1:34 PM 5/26/2009
Modified by dogred at 11:04 PM 6/24/2009

You guys are telling me no one has had this problem. Any thoughts would help as this truck is suposed to be my daily driver.

I don't have a washer on mine but a washer is not gonna do anything bad unless you put it somewhere it doesn't go.

Is it difficult to turn the crank with a breaker bar?

I haven't had starter problems yet, I don't know what exactly is going on with your truck.

Go to a junk yard and grab a 240sx starter if you want another one, not to mention the tons of part outs in NICO classifieds.

The flywheel/clutch is the same also If I remember correctly.

What would really help out is if someone could post a pic of their starter, where it is mounted on the bell housing. It seems to me that my starter need to be shimmed on the opposite side of the gear, so as to get more of a mesh. I looks as if the starter gear is grinding off a little of the tops of the teeth on the ring gear.

I can turn the crank manually.

Is there a different transmission's from other years that could mount up to this engine, z2.4?

You could push start but that sucks.

Well the manual really doesn't help per se on this incident. I checked.

I can think that maybe it isn't sitting flush. Or as I think you are saying, jack one side up so it is a bit skewed so the teeth meet better.

Found out from someone with an 82 who had the same problem and it was his flywheel.Well I could not wait to scratch up the extra funds and time for a flywheel, but I found the time to search out possible parking spots at both of my jobs to bump start the ride. Been successful so far, a few problems here and there. Today I changed the oil, took a look at the underside, replaced the oil in the rear, degreased the engine, checked out the front brakes, and gave her a bath. So far I have had to replace the ignition switch, starter, windshield wipers, and radio. Today my turn signals quit working, they have done this in the past, and all I had to do was turn off the car and then start it again and they would work. So when they went out today I thought that it was the flasher went bad, replaced it, still no turn signals. Going to troubleshoot tomorrow, I got the FSM, a Chilton (almost worthless), and a multimeter. All other lights work, but the dash lights come on 30 seconds to 1 minute after the light switch is activated. Next projects are replacing the flywheel, passenger rotor, checking the rear shoes, fixing the seat, and sometime this summer replacing the ball joints and all frontend bushings. All projects are not in any order until they break.

Need to know what filters people are using for the oil filter. I seem to have an oil leak from mine that I just replaced. I oiled the new o-ring, made sure the old o-ring was removed. Also I have a leak from somewhere right above the airconditioning compressor. Could this be an o-ring for the distributor shaft? Has any one had these problems?

I use puralator filters, last one i used had the grip like fram TG but with a better filter.

I hate FRAM, a guy cut a ton of oil filters apart and FRAM was the worst and Puralator consistantly on top.

I need some part numbers. I know Fram sucks I just was not thinking when I was at the store. Kind of an emergent thing since the truck was on the lift.

I use PL14670. Thats a puralator filter. Also I haven't have issues with my Dizzy yet, I am not sure about your leak.

Looks like your engine swap is going fine, just one question though. Can you take a picture from the top down of where the starter mounts up. Mine is farther away at the passenger side than the engine side, I think my starter is a little bit crooked. Maybe thats why it will not mesh up correctly. Any way tomorrow is the flywheel changeout.

So what is bent? The motor's starter mount? Once the motor is seated on the trans hammer it flat.

I'll try to get that picture.

Thanks for the photo's. Change out of the flywheel is complete, really did not need to, all I needed to do was hammer flat the tranmission dust cover. Now there is another problem, could be weak battery, runs fine with bump start but the starter bogs down after a few cranks. Bradbox hope your engine swap goes smoothly, because it took me and a friend about 6 hours to drop and reinstall the transmission. Make sure to do not bump the clutch arm after you star to install it will kick the throw out bearing in the way.
Modified by dogred at 10:30 PM 6/16/2009

yeah had to put the fork back on a couple times after I got it lined up.

It took me maybe 3hours with help from a neighbor to get the motor installed.

Here how it sounded when starting...

Starter cranking but no fuel, Crank it again little fuel almost starts, third time the starter is a bit weaker but still going not starting quite yet, let it sit for a minute, then it cranked full speed and roared.

The starter is like the easiest thing to find for these motors.I have like 4.

Yeah it is not hard to find a starter, but I still cannot get mine to work all the time. The battery checked out with a higher CCA than the label says. It works for now but I still suspect it is causing my problems. I am ratting out my ride. By ratting I mean that I am going low buck with my customizing. Picked up some chrome rims with tires for 50 clams. I think they are off a Mazda or Pathfinder, chrome steelies, they are 14"x8.2". All they need is a once over with a SOS pad to clean up the rust and to be balanced/mounted. Are these to wise I sure hope that they fit OK. I am going to try to get some pics up soon of the monster.

Hey breadbox can you remove the distributor on your extra motor and tell me what seals up the distributor shaft? Mine seems to be leaking onto my A/C compressor. I need to fix this leak and the oil pan.

I will when I get back home.

Having problems with the distributor. Had to remove it to fix a leaky o-ring. We had to hammer the distributor mounting plate flat because it was bent. Does any one have a pic of what one is supposed to look like. I could not get the distributor back on the same way it came off. It will only go back on in the 180 out posistion. Plus we had a hell of a time putting the cap back on. Any tips. Should I have the mounting block loose and not tight on the block when I put the distributor through it?

Every one have a safe and happy 4th of July!!

Figured out my problem with the distributor. I needed to loosen the block between the adjusting plate and the engine block. Then I flipped the distributor and everything was good.

I also found out my battery was bad replaced it but still have to bump start the rig. Did a bench test and found out the supposed new starter was bad off the shelf. Passed electrically but there was smoke present so I did a warranty exchange, thank god for a lifetime warranty.