My starter went out last week, so I bought a new one and changed it. Now, sometimes when I turn the key, it will start, but most of the time all it does is grind. I've tested the new starter myself, and took it to Autozone, and it works just fine out of the car. I didn't see any spacers when I took the old one off, but I never had this problem before. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

Any excessive wear on the ring gear teeth?

 

Thank you Grim. No, they look just fine. I rotated the flywheel completely around, none of them are broken or worn much at all. I just got back under the hood today and noticed that the wire that goes onto the prong underneath the hot wire on the starter is pretty frayed, so I'm hoping that's the problem, I'll know more after I fix it.

 

So, I fixed the wire and put the starter back on, now it's only turning the engine over around 20% of the time. Sometimes you can hear the starter spinning freely, and sometimes it grinds. Also, it seems like it's hard to start when it's cold. When it's ran for awhile, it starts every time, which is the exact opposite of what I would expect it to do. Any ideas? Thanks.