Just finished replacing the starter on my brothers ls 430...old starter was bad....get the new starter in clean everything up, installed new intake gaskets....bolt everything in and go to start...it freely spins does not engage. After 20 minutes of kicking my self in the butt thinking I could have avoided this by testing the new starter before installing it..I tore it back out and tested it...worked fine..solenoid worked motor spun...any ideas ?

flywheel looks good, traced the wiring it all looked good. First thing tomorrow Im planning on checking with a meter...any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

did you use an OEM reman starter? I've heard the aftermarket reman'd starters grind or disengage rough.

 

Hi screwed, sorry i don't have an answer to your problem. What is the mileage on your brother LS430? I also have a 01' LS430 with 145K mileages and i am afraid my starter will die on me anything soon.

 

My experience has been with makes other than Japanese cars. I have had situations where the fault was with the tightening of the starter bolts, uneven torque on the bolts would cause the starter to misalign. Also, I have had problems with reman starters where the spring did not engage due to defects in the starter, took it back and got another one that worked.

If you bought a new OEM starter, it is probably the alignment problem.

 

Finally got some time to take another look..

Mileage: 181, 000

Starter: aftermarket reman. ( a/c delco )

Starter bench tested fine, battery voltage good, relay checked out, wire from the battery to starter good, only one I havent checked was the smaller wire. I'll double check surfaces of starter and block and make sure I evenly tighten...other than that I'll have to try and do some load tests and see how everything comes out