I tried to delete the ring gear post. I have been looking into this. 07 5.9 48RE trans. Excellent condition. low miles. Started yesterday, and made a weird skip/jump/grind noise. Not to loud but not smooth start. So I restarted to duplicate, same. Pulled starter to look at teeth, looked good. Opened small bell house cover. Shhhh__, flex plate teeth broken off Can also see one of the teeth broken off on flex plate. Here is my thinking.... No matter what have to pull trans to get to flex plate. But how and why did it happen. 1) Starter does not release at run speed and jams up and cause break off. OR, flex plate is warped and causing weird contact with starter. OR, torque converter is doing something at start. Tell me if I am wrong. this motor when shut off stops in any position. there are many teeth on the flex plate. It cant be a timing issue with the relationship between the location of the flex plate and the starter teeth. The starter engages, turns, and then something f__d happens. After this noise/grind/start the engine runs fine and I drove around fine with trans shifting and running normal. Batteries are top condition and all connections very good. I think the starter is jamming. But there are so many posts of flex plates gone bad. Usually at high torque/fuel. I get on it now and then but just use around the farm.

 

By chance is there a pilot bearing in the crank shaft, also was it a sway out engine from a man, to auto.