A month ago my c1500 would drag but finnaly turn over, the other day I went to start and
it made a loud grinding metal noise and wouldnt start. Autozone tested starter and said it
was bad. Bought a new one and cranked ok but made a winding noise. next day tried to
crank and made loud metal noise. It broke the cone off the starter. I replaced starter, but it
makes a loud metal sheering noise almost like its coming from the flywheel. If it turns over the engine sounds fine. The flywheel
teeth look good. I replaced the Cam position sensor too. any ideas, I love my truck. I
thought i might need to shim the starter, but its making the same noise that it was
making with the original starter. Thought maybe flywheel, but it would make a noise while
running, but it sounds great if you can get it to turn over.

 

Sorry I don't have the answer. I have a similar problem. My son came in the house a minute ago and said the '95 Sierra 1500 would not start. As soon as you turn the key to start, there is an awful, loud grinding noise. Engine does not crank at all. As far as I know there were no previous symptoms. Battery is about 4 years old. Don't know if the starter is original are what. We have owned the truck about 4.5 years.

Battery voltage seems fine. I tried jumping he truck anyway, it made no difference. My plan is to pull the starter tomorrow and check it. I have seen no clear answers on-line yet. My big hope is that the ring gear on the flywheel is fine.

TIA for any responses.

 

Crawled under the truck, starter was barely attached. One bolt was gone the other was loose. Tried to tighten the loose one and it broke right off, leaving a piece in the hole. Removed starter (only had to disconnect wires). Pieces of bolt in both holes. Used left hand drill bit to start drilling easy out hole in the piece from the bolt that was at least still hanging there. That piece of bolt threaded right out when my LH bit went in about 1/8". Threads were fine. Guess it broke because the other bolt was gone. Piece from missing bolt did not thread out so easily. Broke off one-easy out. Ended up drilling out bolt and installing a helicoil. All better now. NOTE - some bolts are metric, some are us. Make sure you get the right bolt. Dealer price was only $1.50 ea. China Auto Parts store price was $5.50 ea. Go figure. Note, I spent about 6 hrs performing this repair over 4 days. Purchased multi easy outs, LH drill bits, bit for helicoil and helicoil set. Do not buy easy out from anywhere but professional tool source - not DIY store. Now go get dirty!

 

Have you checked the teeth on your flywheel for damage?

 

If the teeth on the flywheel are damaged it will only make a sound when the starter is engaged.

 

Gear teeth on flexplate were fine.