New starter same grinding

[Racer_Ace]

Ok so I have a 1990 300zx 2+2. Naturally aspirated of course. Original engine. The starter would sometimes spin and completely not catch the flywheel. It probably happened 60% of the time. Finally the starter eventually locked up. Wouldn't even turn over. So. Bought a new one. I go to put the new one in and find out the old one was only held on by the top not. Bottom bolt is gone. And the starter was shaking apart. Completely destroyed. So I found a bolt that fit the whole. I believe it's a 30mm long bolt. Worked just fine until I go to turn it over and it just grinds. The guys at O'Reillys tell me it's my battery. Said it was bad. So. Bought a new one. Put it in, I even replaced the little terminal for the starter wire on the positive terminal. GOOD CONNECTION. New battery. Still grinds. So we replace the starter again thinking it's defective. Nope. Still grinding. If I shook the car in gear it would sometimes start up just fine. But now it's not wanting to do anything but grind. my flywheel looks good. It's just a starter from O'Reillys. Can anyone think of anything wrong I might be doing? Do I need to shim the starter? Is there some kind of spacing that's required? I'm so lost.

[macgiver]

mac, listen to this Racer - I had very similar problem (happened to be O'reillty part also) , J30 w/ VG30DE motor. Here's the short of it - when returning for a Lifetime Warranted starter there, O'reillys had a different part # , which inexplicably both #'s ARE availlable ! Now one part has the gear on starter ,loaded by it's return spring and it SMOOTHLY and LINEARLY extends (use fingers to get the "feel" of this aspect now) all the way out to the nose where positioned at the flywheel's edge - right. There is another starter, that subbed # , they can and WILL give you that has a STEPPED kind of extesion to the gear. In otherwords I got a wrong sarter that when I pushed, manually ,the gear out to it's FULL extension- it had a light ACTION first 3/8" THEN VERY HEAVY-ACTION from then on out - which I KNOW is what kept it from "meshing right" on the flexplate/flywheel ring gear teeth. NO SH!$%%TT !!! You wanna make sure the opposing return spring action is NOT like A DOUBLE ACTION with a second HEAVY tension to the FINAL extension of the gear .
p.s. If you have the same motor ,PM me and I''ll lookup my recepts and give you BOTH the good & the bad #'s- you supply the ugly

[Racer_Ace]

Is it for the same car? The guy said there was only one available for it... Or is it the same style of starter but fits on a different car? Where could I get it? Do you have a part number?

[macgiver]

mac,bad # that grinds in these motors was Oreilly's # R712523A by "ULT line" ,the good # that projected properly out to the flywheel is ULT 12165 (I believe also by "ULT line" ). Find an Oreilly's that has the good # ,compare them like I did, always keep your "Core" until YOU KNOW YOUR FIX is GOOD !! I checked Oreilly's website and those #'s fit J30 93-97 AND your 300zx with the DOHC and the89's with the SOHC . Check it out for yourself , como-back with the results ya hear !

[Pablo808]

Ok so I have a 1990 300zx 2+2. Naturally aspirated of course. Original engine. The starter would sometimes spin and completely not catch the flywheel. It probably happened 60% of the time. Finally the starter eventually locked up. Wouldn't even turn over. So. Bought a new one. I go to put the new one in and find out the old one was only held on by the top not. Bottom bolt is gone. And the starter was shaking apart. Completely destroyed. So I found a bolt that fit the whole. I believe it's a 30mm long bolt. Worked just fine until I go to turn it over and it just grinds. The guys at O'Reillys tell me it's my battery. Said it was bad. So. Bought a new one. Put it in, I even replaced the little terminal for the starter wire on the positive terminal. GOOD CONNECTION. New battery. Still grinds. So we replace the starter again thinking it's defective. Nope. Still grinding. If I shook the car in gear it would sometimes start up just fine. But now it's not wanting to do anything but grind. my flywheel looks good. It's just a starter from O'Reillys. Can anyone think of anything wrong I might be doing? Do I need to shim the starter? Is there some kind of spacing that's required? I'm so lost.

Sorry to burst your bubble but, I'd never take suggestions from an OReily's employee.
Most likely that Oreily's sold you a bad/wrong starter.
I used to be a technician at my previous job. Every time we'd buy moving parts from Oreily's, it turned out to be a defective part. Those a**holes sent me 6 defective power steering pumps that I had to keep constantly changing on a clients car. What also made it worst was that they didn't have any on the shelf so they had to keep ordering pumps from the mainland. (I live in Hawaii)
I'd rather stick with NAPA or carquest.


P.S Have the parts guy use their battery tester on your battery before they give you an assumption.
One easy way I know whether if it's my battery or my starter, I just turn on the headlights and crank it.
If your headlights fully die out when you crank the car, then it's your battery.
If your lights just dim out a little, then it's a starter issue.

Good luck, hope you solve your problem. Come back with your findings.

[Ace2cool]

I'd say the problem is with the bottom bolt. If it was missing, then the threads are more than likely stripped. It's supposed to be an M10x1.5 bolt. It's steel going into aluminum, so it's easy to over-torque and strip it. If that's the case, get a simple helicoil kit and re-thread the hole, see if that fixes your issue.

[amc49]

'The starter would sometimes spin and completely not catch the flywheel. It probably happened 60% of the time.'
'And the starter was shaking apart. Completely destroyed.'

If starter not tight and coming apart then the flywheel is likely junk by now and why it grinds.

'my flywheel looks good.'

Many think that but they are NOT, go back to the first sentence quoted and why.