My 99 Chevy truck makes a grinding sound when I try to start my truck

Hello. It seems the starter itself is wore out. The solenoid powers the motor but is not 'kicking out' the pinion gear to engage the flywheel; not like it should anyway. The 'whirring' sound is the starter; the 'grinding' sound are the starter and flywheel teeth not 'meshing' right. Remove and replace the starter. Good luck and keep me informed; if you want to.

check that the pitch of the starter is the same as the ring gear
starter bendix units come with different pitch ( number of teeth and has to be the same pitch as the ring gear or the teeth will start to bind up and cause all sorts of problems

pull the starter and check the ring gear teeth for burrs and mashed teeth. Ensure that the new starter has the correct number of teeth on the pinion as required by the ring gear or you will have the wrong gear ratio for your vehicle. There are many engines that use the same starter motor but are differentiated by the number of teeth on the pinion. I suspect that will be why there is hard noise and kick back as that is the out of mesh gears trying to work

Sounds like the teeth on the flywheel ring gear are damaged.

The brushes on the starter are worn where you hear the gringing. The grinding comes from the worn areas trying to turn over the fly wheel. Or the fly wheel teeth are doing the opposite to the starter. Hope this helps

Could damaged flywheel teeth where starter mesh. Turn the motor by hand a half turn and then try starter again. Does the vehicle start when you push or tow it?

Did the starter make a high pitch whirring sound? Because if it did then either your starter is loose in the houseing and you need to tighten it up, or the teeth on the flywheel have been chipped off. Sometimes you can turn the engine by hand by moving the front balancer on the engine and this will move the teeth enough to get it started. However, most engines stop on 3 or four places every time they shut off. This gives you a 1 in 3 or one in 4 chance of this happening every time you start the car. I would check the starter first. If it's tight you can pull the starter and look at the teeth on the flywheel. If they're chipped it would be worth having it replaced. Keep in mind it's going to mean either pulling the engine or the transmission to fix it.

Starter has teeth that mesh with teeth on the flex plate . most of these type grinding noises are do to missing teeth on the starter gear or flex plate missing teeth .Does your vehicle have a automatic transmission ? Have you had starter replaced lately ?

1.The shims go between the starter body, and the engine block. These are installed to space the starter drive gear, away from the flywheel. They are only used if needed.

2.There is a gap that you need between the starter gear teeth, and the flywheel teeth. This gap should be about 3/32nd's of an inch, to 1/8th of an inch. With a flashlight, and a ruler, measure between the outside edge of the starter drive gear teeth, and the outside edge of the flywheel teeth.

Too close, when starting the vehicle it sounds very metallic, and like you're grinding corn.
Too far away, and the teeth don't engage properly, and you'll KNOW it! Sounds like a metallic 'zing', as the teeth skip. (Also it won't be long, and you'll be replacing the starter drive, and the flywheel!)

hello first thing you need to do is take your starter out the starter drive gear either has busted teeth or the flywheel does with the starter removed mark the flywheel with chalk crayon so you no were you started from look at the teeth good keep turning the motor by hand checking till you come back to the original mark you made if there are no chips or missing teeth look at the look at the starter drive teeth there most likely busted or chewed down replace the starter goodluck please rate