I have a Ford 771m Fiesta motor mated to a British Ford tranny similar to the type 2. How important is the thickness of the dust shield that goes between the bottom of the motor and the bellhousing. I could not find one in the US of A so I had to make one. It is about .5mm thick as the stock one is about 1mm thick. I have trashed two new rebuild starters on the se7en and I am wondering if that is what is causing my failure? Thanks, Russ

I can't see the tiny difference in material thickness making any difference to the starter. What problems are you getting with the starter motors?

Are you using inertia or pre engaged? Inertia throws in from the gearbox side and pre engaged from the engine side. You need to make sure the lead on the ringgear teeth are on the correct side or you'll get engagement problems and premature wear.

I don't use the spacer at all, on my 711 crosflow engines with a type 2 gearbox and never had a problem, I do however use an interia starter,

maybe your ring gear on the flywheel is for the other type of starter to the one your using ?

why not put 5mm washers on the 6 mounting bolts ?

steve

The starter gear pushes out to the flywheel so it would be per engaged. In the US the tranny, bellhousing, starter, and flywheel all came from a Ford Pinto which is completely different than your Pinto. Both starters worked for about a week and stopped. Even if you wire directly from battery to starter with battery booster cables the starter does nothing but throw sparks when you touch the connectors. First starter was a Bosch brand and the second was a Carquest brand.