Recent A4LD rebuild question

[Old Valdez Trail]

The short of it is this: Back in January I had my A4LD rebuilt by a local reputable shop, and all was well. At the beginning of May, with 2000 mi. on the rebuild, I started having issues with a delayed 1-2 shift and slipping in 4th. Since the shop gave me a 12/12 warranty, I took it back in and was told the new torque converter apparently grenaded and left metal shavings everywhere. They said they basically rebuilt the whole thing again, at no charge, and I took it home this past Thursday.

Now, over the weekend, I've started having trouble with my starter not engaging with the flexplate. This happens maybe 1 in 4 times I go to start it, where I'll turn the key and just hear the starter spin.

I gather that this could be anything from a faulty bendix to a cracked flex plate. I did have my previous starter fail back in April, after which I replaced it with a 90k mile unit from a salvage yard as well as putting in brand new positive and negative battery cables. Everything seemed fine for a month or so until I took it back in for the tranny work. I guess I'm just looking for some recommendations on how to proceed. If the bendix fails, is it possible for it to work sometimes? Or is this behavior explicitly diagnostic of a bad flex plate?

I don't have a problem fixing things, I just wish they'd stay fixed. I'm over $4k into repairs since I bought this truck two years ago, and that's just barely keeping it running. I planned for a professional engine rebuild in the next year or so, but at this point I don't know if I'll make it that far.

 

[BrooklynBay]

You probably have a bad gear on the starter or a worn flexplate. How many miles does it have?

 

[Old Valdez Trail]

It's got 184k miles. I suppose I'll pull the starter again and take a look. One step at a time, right?

 

[larrydd999]

I'd agree with dropping the starter and looking for a problem there before anything else.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Did you make any progress since last week?

 

[Old Valdez Trail]

I did! I went to Napa and bought yet another starter, just to rule that out. It seems to have taken care of the starter issue. I checked out the flexplate teeth while I was at it and didn't see any damage done. I got my $45 back from the salvage yard on the previous starter (day 30 of a 30-day warranty), and took it back to the transmission shop to have them look at that bolt. They said they took care of it and everything looks and sounds good. Apparently the bolt wasn't broken, it was just too short? I didn't feel like grilling them on whether this was a factory error or something they did, as long as it got fixed. They told me they just replaced it with a longer bolt.

I really hope everything stays fixed this time, so I can move on to some of the other issues on the list (holy exhaust, rear wiper motor, etc.) Thanks guys, for the reminder that my truck isn't consciously trying to ruin my life.