Starter disengages before van has started

[ccookie66]

Hello, I have this problem that prevents my van from starting. When I turn the key, the engine will begin to start, but then the starter just disengages. What could be causing this? Will I need to replace the starter? Thanks.

[Phantom]

Most often it is the 'starter drive gear' sometimes called a bendix , the spring that pushes the drive gear into the flexplate gets weak and cannot hold the gear meshed with flexplate long enough to start engine and it gets kicked out back to its home position , the drive gear slides on the armature shaft of the starter , to replace it you remove the nose cone of starter and remove the collar ring , then c clip and slide it off , install new one and reassemble with new bushing ,
if you buy a new starter it comes with new starter as well a new solenoid
your symptom is a sign of wear , there may be other worm parts in your starter like brushes that may fail in the not so distant future ,, so it kinda depends on if you want to just buy a new starter and have all things new , or just replace parts and do the labor each time you need to make a repair

[Big_kid]

eh- go ahead and replace the starter for all the reasons Phantom mentioned. I just replaced mine AGAIN for the 2nd time in 4 years/<10K miles. It turned just fine, but every so often it would not engage the flexplate. (The PROPER way to fix that is to replace the starter and flexplate at the same time. That way both gears are new, and you don't end up with a worn gear riding on a new gear)