Is it toast? (w/pic)

Got my starter out, here's a pic. Do I have to get a whole new one? Looks like a snap ring of some sort should be in the groove, but it's not there anymore. The other rings look damaged, but they could be shims, I don't know. I need some help here fellas, I'm getting set to make the hour drive to town, and I'd like to try to get what I need to fix this today. The heep and I are supposed to be in a parade saturday! TIA

 

Admin, thanks to the pain meds, this post is redundant, feel free to remove it, I apologize...

 

Good photo though...

 

Those are shims. There is a thick snap ring that fits in the groove, but its different than a regular snap ring.

 

You can just buy a new drive from a starter/alternator shop for about $6. If you can't get 1 let me know. My cuz owns a start/alt shop and can get the part for you. count the teeth to make sure you get the same one. There are a couple different ones for most starters.

 

Do you have a napa around you? They have decent rebuilt starters.

 

Sheesh! Now I know why you should never start two threads on the same issue! #%*@ meds! I'm gonna reply to both posts with a cut/paste.

Went to napa, they were proud of their 2 year warranty reman starter, 70.00. My buddy owns the local CarQuest, 2yr warranty reman 35. He said he can “extend” the warranty for good customers (me) if necessary. Got it installed, what a difference! Very, very quiet, amazing.

The starter has always sounded funny on the heep since I got it, but the new noise was an obvious bad thing, glad I pulled it, no damage to the ring gear. I now believe that ever since I've owned the thing, the starter was a little goofy. The new noise started almost immediately after I installed a new Optimia Yellow Top, new 4ga cables, cleaned all the contacts, etc. When I take a look at the old starter (you can kind of see a litle of the damage in the “Is it Toast” thread picture posted) you can see that the new battery completely blew out the retaining ring and allowed the starter gear to extend far enough forward to start chewing up the housing on the nosepiece, and the end of the starter gear itself. Pulled a few chunks out of the bellhousing with a magnet before I installed the reman.

So it looks like the common jeep upgrade strory, upgrades always cost you more than you anticipate. I'm a happy boy though, jeep starts in ½ revolution from dead cold. Humdy!

Thanks for all your help and suggestions, this board is awesome!