md1twal3

Been searching forums and the web and cannot find any mention of the specific issue I'm having. I recently replaced the clutch in my 2008 Mazda 3 (2.4L) and left the original flywheel in it. It has 198K on it and the flywheel visually looked decent. Starter engaged fine with no abnormal noises for several weeks after the clutch replacement. Starter eventually failed and would randomly engage. I took the starter off and the bendix gear was badly worn and when jumping the starter with a battery, turned over very slowly so armature and brushes also shot.

Bought a new starter and installed it but the bendix is not engaging with the flywheel at all. It kicks out and just whirs. No grinding, no partial engagement, just whirs. I removed it and bench tested it with a battery. It whirs and kicks out. Just to be sure, I took it back to the parts store and swapped it with another new one. Installed it, same result.

While installed, I applied external battery power to both the terminal and the solenoid to eliminate the chance of a volt/amp/ohm issue on the car. It kicked out and whired just the same.

I loosened the two starter bolts to give me a little play and pryed out on the end opposite the flywheel to minimize the clearance between the bendix gear and the flywheel gear. It cranks and starts. It's a little noisey because the clearance isn't correct but it cranks and starts.

It seems like the bendix gear is too small so I went to the parts store to compare a 2.0 and 2.4 starter (different part numbers). I was hoping the 2.0 would have a bigger gear and that would solve my problem. No dice, both are 11 teeth starters.

This leads me to a badly worn flywheel so I rotated the engine at different spots to change the flywheel gear position hoping if it were the flywheel ring gear, I would at least hear grinding or the starter would engage. It still only whirred in multiple different positions.

I've been working on cars for 35 years and have had ring gears fail. They typically grind badly and if moving the engine to reposition the flywheel, often times start. I have never had a failed ring gear that will not engage in any way.

Anyone ever experience this issue and it be the flywheel? With the mileage on the car, I get it being worn but all the way around, seemingly equally?

Hoping for help here...not quite ready to concede to pulling the trans again and replacing the flywheel but that's what it's looking like Help....

The only thing that I can think of is when I removed and reinstalled the flywheel, I installed the flywheel shim between the crank and flywheel instead of flywheel side (reference attachment) but then I don't think the starter would have engaged at all so doubt this is the case.

md1twal3

Found the issue. Pulled the flywheel and the ring gear was spinning freely around it. No cracks so not sure why it lost it's pressed on clearance but that's what the issue was.