Thread direction takes a U-turn.....
I'll have to tell a story on myself. Had an old beater pickup, '91 Ford F150 regular cab, longbed. I drove it to Firebird one Friday night to do tech and shut it off as usual. End of the evening, I went to start it and the crank wouldn't turn. I thought maybe I had wadded up a rod bearing, so called my buddy to come get me. We towed it to his 40' x 90' shop and I began pulling the motor for a teardown. Got the motor out and separated from the transmission and all of it laying on the floor. Put the motor on an engine stand and began disassembly. When I pulled the starter motor, what do you think dropped out on the floor? Yep, a bendix tooth that had broken off and wedged between the bendix and the flywheel ring gear.
When the truck wouldn't start, I let the truck roll downhill and dumped the clutch to try to release the crank. All it would do was to skid the rear tires. Had I tried the same thing going backward, the tooth would have fallen out and I would have been able to start the truck with the starter until I could replace the starter later when it would have been more convenient. As it was, it cost me about $1200 to do an engine rebuild because it needed it anyway.
Let this be a lesson to you. Try to push it forward and then backward before you pull the motor.
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