BroncoII4x4.com

I'm Jesse. I have a 84 bronco II with the 2.8L and the 4 speed overdrive tranny. I found out after putting a new starter on it that the flywheel has all the teeth pretty much filed off. I'm looking to see if anyone has had this problem. Also, I've been told that dropping the tranny is a royal pain in the @$$, and my friend I work with at Napa told me that it might be easier to bust the engine loose and scoot it forward to get to the flywheel. The guy I got the bronco from also mentioned somethin about it having the starter/flywheel problem before. Any ideas why it would keep doing this? It'll be greatly appreciated for any help!!!

You can adjust the starter slightly. If you'll notice, the holes are somewhat larger than the starter bolts.

One thing that happens is oil leaks from the valve cover down onto the starter. This causes the bendix(starter gear) to not fully enguage and instead grind on the flywheel.

It's also possible the starter came loose at some point and was grinding on the flywheel.

To replace the flywheel, you'll want to drop the tranny. It's a pita, but no worse than any other vehicle. I've always heard of people trying to move the tranny back enough to work, or in your case the engine....but in reality, but the time you take everything loose to work, it will take all of 2 minutes to drop the tranny/engine out completely.

makes sense. the valves cover bolts weren't even hand tight when i got it. I replaced the intake and valve cover gaskets. the only other problem i have is getting that rear driveshaft out. oh well, i'll manage. thanx for the advice bro!

also, i have a few other ?s. My power steering hose looks like it leaked before and the hose wiggles inside the fitting on the pump. when i got it the pump was empty and had no cap on it. I heard the ford power steering hoses were made to wiggle in the pump fitting (sounds screwy to me). also, do you think my pump might be bad since it had no cap or fluid? also, the little connector on top of the water outlet on mine has one of the wires broken off (alot of my wires have the insulation falling off). Does that connector go to the temp. gauge? because none of my gauges except speedo and amp work.

P.S. hoses aren/t ment to move around. Make sure the shim plate between the engine and trans is there. That had been a source of eaten flywheels in my little world.

shim plate? is it like a spacer? cuz I don't think mine has one. I didn't see anything between the block and the tranny when i was changin starters. know of somewhere i could get one? (besides the junkyard) i can't belive i sold my 89 toyota pickup and bought this clunker, everything i fix i find 2 more wrong with it! lol

Good news! I got the flywheel in the Bronco. The tranny sure was a pain! Ford put the damn exhaust right in the way, but I was too lazy to take it off. The starter works great, just haven't got the distributor in right so it isn't runnin yet. I'll have it in and hopefully runnin tomorrow. 1 question tho. I dumped maybe a half a quart of 80w90 out when we were fightin the tranny (i dropped the tranny & transfer case together!!) do i need to refill it or will it be alright?

I am not sure about the BII power steering pumps but my superduty, 5L and other ford pumps have a small nylon seal at the fitting that can leak. The fitting will typically be tight but will rotate. They are about $1 ea at ford for everything except the SD and they don't make them so you have to buy the hose :-(

If you took fluid out it's supposed to be there, so yes replace it.
HTH

Best way to replace the fly wheel is to leave the tranny where it is and rent an engine lift and move the engine back and do it that way. The tranny is a major B*tch to get out and oh is it heavy!!! If you do take out the tranny be sure you do it on a smooth level surface and have a transmission jack. The smooth level surface will allow you to roll the transmission easily. Once you move the engine or transmission out of the way it is an easy job.