When I try to start my car, all I hear is a loud rattling noise. It sounds like a 150 pound impact gun trying to loosen a bolt torqued to 250 ft-lbs. Like a rat-tat-tat sound. It sounds like its coming from the starter.

I took the starter to AutoZone and it tested fine. I saw the wear on the flywheel so I replaced it. I am still getting the same problem.



Would the amount of wear that is shown below hinder the teeth from engaging?

 

I don't see any abnormal wear on either the ring gear or the starter pinion. The Autozone starter tester doesn't test it under load so it's pretty much useless. If the starter sounds like it's working but it won't crank the engine then it's probably got a bad 1 way clutch. Replacing the starter should fix it.

 

I have to agree, I have seen a lot more wear on both the ring gear and starter pinion gear and starter still worked fine.

It almost sounds, [by your discription of impact gun] like the starter solenoid engages and then disengages as soon as the starter motor "loads up" and does so continuously, as long as ign. key is held to start.

 

if you take out the starter and shake it, you should hear the starter gear rattle around in the housing.
test with a new starter.
when autozone tests starters they have no way testing the bindix sping.
if the bindix spring is out, the gear will just move around loosely in the housing.
and chances are he didnt shake the assembly before he tested it.
try that...

 

I bought a new starter and tried to start the car up. I am getting the same rattling noise.

 

Is the engine turning over, or trying to?

Remove cam gear cover and watch the cam gears to see if they move when trying to start the engine.

Let me know 94

 

are you sure your not mistaking the loud clunking for loud clicking? your batt maybe to weak to even turn it over. put a volt meter on your batt and crank it. the voltage shouldnt drop below 9.6 and if it does then get a new batt. it'll take just a min to do it so try it

 

It ended up being a bad battery! I guess it had enough juice to get the gear moving and making some contact but not enough juice to fully push the gear out to fully engage the flywheel teeth.