1952 Ply. Suburban Starter Failures

[Guest hotbeach]

1952 Plymouth Starter problems; My '52 Ply. has the original 218ci engine. I have had the starter remand twice, and replaced the flywheel ring gear once in the last 10 years and 50k miles. The starter bendix teeth are damaged yet again and need replaced. I read recently that there was a starter change in 1952, and wonder if I have a mis-match between the stater and the flywheel. I am looking for a way to verify a match or not.

My flywheel ring has 146 teeth & is 14-3/4"OD x 13-5/8"ID x 11/32 wide

The bendix has 9 teeth & is 1-5/32" OD approx.

The starter is an Autolite#MCH-6205 Ser.#5G135065 Chrysler Pt.#1473558

If anyone can help with this, or point me to a reliable source, I would appreciate it.1952

[startergenrebuilder]

The MCH-6205 starter was used in 1952, 53 and 54 Plymouth's unless it was a Canadian built model. Is yours made in Canada? The USA models did use another Autolite starter model, but it uses the same drive end housing and drive so I doubt that would be a problem. Not sure if I can help much, but I can share what information I have. One other thing to check is the drive pinion diameter. There were a few different drives used in both Delco and Autolites that have slightly different drive pinion (gear) diameters. Yours could have been replaced at some time with the wrong gear. Let me know if I can help you out in any way.

[Harold]

It's a long shot, but could your battery cables not be thick enough for the 6 volt system and the starter gear engages sluggishly or not deep enough into the flywheel teeth?

PS: I have a '52 Cambridge and a '51 business coupe. I think they're great cars.

[JohnGB]

You might have a flywheel problem. A lot of the flywheels will interchange, but for some reason the ring gear is not always in the same place. When the starter engages it doesn't line up with the ring gear correctly. I had a similar problem with one car I had. The ring gear was mounted farther forward on the flywheel. Had to make up a spacer to fit between the starter and bell housing. End of problem.