Ford C4 Ring Gear R&R

I bought a new rebuilt starter last fall. I saw the wear on the ring gear, but it was November and too cold to fiddle with it. When I got the 1978 Donor car powertrain in, in December 2006 (-15C, 5F), I just dropped it in, bolted it and stopped until Spring of 2007.

So here I am with the task at hand.

It's a 3.3L I6, C4 Auto. Doing a quick check on the web is kinda useless, because its mostly V8 (289/302) guys that are chatting about them, and they're talking about number of teeth, Std or Auto trans.

I found a tidbit in the Haynes manual about removing the old ring gear with a hacksaw, using the chunks of the old one on bricks and heating up the new one to 400F with a torch (yellowish colour) and tapping the new one onto the flexplate. (Its separate from the converter and flywheel.)

Andy suggested heating it up in the oven, and that makes good sense.

TBird suggested buying a new one already mounted, because they get tackwelded to the flexplate.

Then I saw a real monkeywrench article that Ford made the starter gear with 9 teeth, whereas the rebuilders often use a 10 tooth gear drive. Probably why mine is all chewed up.

Bottom of thread:
http://www.car-answers.com/Ford/Mustang/Ford-Mustang-1966-Making_Noise-Engine-075807.html

Anyone have any idea who'd know how many teeth the Factory ring gear has AND the aftermarket ring gear might have?

 

You want to come over and count my teeth?

 

Stock teeth or falsies?

Which one has the motor off, I forget?

 

Are you in tomorrow? or is today better?

 

Nah I was just trying to be funny. I am not that lazy that I can't go downstairs and count 'em.
132. Maybe we should get two, mine's a little chewed up as well.

 

How many on the starter gear drive? 9 or 10?

Yeah, let's get two. Probably need to ask ACE Electric about tooth count for a good match.

 

Weird, I counted 11?

And I have seen the ring gear referred to on the net as having 136 teeth?

 

Where else can we check? Parkside Ford has the old microfiche cards still. Maybe Fordsix.

Was the 3.3L used in other Fords, like Mavericks?

 

OK Rockauto has the Dorman flexplate with 132 teeth, so we're OK with that.
The starters they list are 9 teeth, so that's something to sort out. Maybe this car came with the wrong starter.

 

I just searched FordSix. No Love. Just guys doing swaps with C3 and C4's on 250 CID sixes.

 

Worse comes to worse, we get the right gear drive and the 132 ring gears. ACE or Ford for crossreference? Both probably.

 

Partstrain says 9 teeth is the stock configuration:
http://www.partstrain.com/ShopByDepartment/Starter/FORD/FAIRMONT

 

Fordsix members are all over the map with theirs. You're right, ours should be 132 teeth. Seems the 1980's models went to 136 teeth.

https://www.fordsix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=414040

 

Got the Flexplate Ford Part Number, plus all the models that used it:
http://www.bulkpart.com/FLYford.html

That page goes to Makco Distributors, and using the search, I got this:
http://www.makcotransmissionparts.com/F214.html

This works better:
http://www.makcotransmissionparts.com/FLYcatalogFORD.html

 

Here's the starter from ACE with crossreferences to other remanufacturers. (9 teeth on the bendix):

https://ws1.wilsonautoelectric.com/ec03/part.php?part=91-02-5828