Hey there Dodge lovers. Old Flipmann here with a quick question for all you smarter then me people. Okay I put a new clutch pressure plate and all that in my 82 D 150 slant 6. Well when I put it back together I forgot to put the little shim that goes between bell housing and the starter. Well I drove it with out it for probably a month and after about 2 weeks started noticing a hard crank. Well Friday I go out to go to work and the truck won't start the starter is spinning but not engaging the flywheel. So today I put the shim back in and tried starting it still nothing just spinning the starter.
So I looked at the flywheel and there is a little wear on the teeth but none are broke or wore down to far to not engage the starter. Just a little shiny so I put a different stater on and that starter did the samething as the other one.Haven't checked the solenoid yet but did change the starter relay on the driver side wheel well. thanks

 

I would pull the starter and bench test it to make sure the selenoid is pushing the gear out. I cant imagine it being anything else.

 

thunderz Thanks for checking out my issue. I planned on bench testing the starter today just haven't had the time but I will I've been doing a lot of work on the truck the past few weeks so I really hope it is something as simple as the solenoid have to see I'll let you know how it turns out. I just ordered a Dodge shop manual from ebay and plan to go through all the vacum lines and wires to make sure all that is right

 

Okay bench started the starter and solenoid and starter both are spinning. Put it back in the truck crawled underneath tried to start it and nothing just spun like before but I did notice that the solenoid pushed out and the fly wheel did spin but it didn't crank. I pulled the plugs to see what they looked like and they where a redish brown on the tops. Now these plugs only have probably 800 miles on them if that. I went ahead and put some new ones in and pulled the coil out haven't tried starting it again yet ran out of daylight haha. any Ideas? I did notice that the distributor is a two coil system but on the diagram I have there are 2 sets of wires coming off each coil Mine only have one set on the outside of the cap any ideas and comments would be very helpful

 

Okay starter works fine spinning fly wheel but the engine still isn't cranking I put a wrench on the crank and turned it and it had compression but when I crank with the key it won't move the fan
Busted crank or the fly wheel bolts broke? haven't pulled it apart yet to see but is there anything elsa it could be? If it is the crank broke can I pull crank without pulling whole engine maybe do it from the oil pan?
Any thoughts are welcomed thanks to all

 

Pull the plugs and see if the starter turns it over

 

He's already checked that he feels compression turning by hand, and the starter/flywheel is spinning, but the motor isn't. Pulling the plugs not going to help. So, my guess is as the OP thought...The crank broke at the rear journal (since he can turn the rotating assembly from the front via the crank), or the flywheel connection broke.

 

thanks for the input guys I'm going to tear into it this weekend I'm praying to God that the fly wheel bolts just broke and not the crank. Wish me luck fellas' I'll keep you posted oh any thought on if I can pull that crank out without pulling the engine.
Thanks again guys

 

Is it soup yet?!

 

You can hope it was only the ring gear come loose from the flywheel. If it was the bolts, hopefully you didn't Loctite them in.