Had a bad starter on my 91 civic cx would click and then do nothing. got a new one from O'riellys, told them 1.5 motor, same as dx. Installed new starter, all it does is spin, if I'm lucky I can get it to catch the flywheel and turn the motor over. Pretty sure flywheel teeth aren't bad, never had an issue before. What's going on?

 

You're "pretty sure", or you are SURE you still have teeth on the flywheel?? That's where you need to start. Have someone turn the engine over by hand while you inspect the flywheel.

 

I checked them, they look good to me. Plus since the starter slipping has never once been a problem before, I don't understand how installing a new one would make the teeth rounded off/broken.

 

Take the starter back to O'Reillys... Have them do two things - 1) bench test the starter. 2) compare the starter to another of the exact same part number. I know from personal experience, working with OR's at our shop, we've had many occasions of parts being mis-boxed or mis-labeled.

 

Had a guy I know tell me to put some washers between the starter and trans. To see if that lines it up, and bench test it myself since they already did and said it was good. If the washers work, buy a shim, if not take it back.

 

You shouldn't need to shim a starter on a Honda...

 

you just fucked up goin to them. they're parts are NEVER right, take it to autozone and have them compare it! it seems like its just a bad starter they can come off the shelf that way, its most likely a reman.

 

Found issue, motor screw was Loose out of the box, seems like it wasn't kicking out all the way. Tightened all connections up and now it works better... Not perfect but better. Seems like it's almost slipping, kinda like its jerking the flywheel...

 

Turn and burn89, you were right... After I got frustrated with messing with it, I took it back and exchanged it for another one. It took right off. Who would have thought it could be bad out of the box, even after I bench tested it myself and it seemed fine. Thank you.

 

yea dude i work for AZ so i know that remanufactured parts can be bad out of the box, no matter who you go through their remans are likely to be from mexico and arent always properly inspected or tested. and so you know bench testing doesnt put a load on the starter and as long as it kicks out and spins it ''passes.''