Broken Flywheel Teeth

[67-Conv-200]

My starter failed on me today and it looks like it broke at least two teeth on my flywheel. Here is a picture of the one that came out with the old starter:

The car now starts, but there is a least one other tooth broken bouncing around and I hope to go in through the inspection plate and remove the broken tooth. I will also look for which teeth are broken. Now my questions are:
1. Other that the occasional starting problems, what can broken flywheel teeth cause?
2. How difficult is it to replace the flywheel ring gear? My car is an auto with a C4 that was installed in 2010 by a shop (previous owner). I have done some research and it sounds like a big job.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[JackFish]

The ring gear is welded to the torque converter.
Remove the converter and take it to a tranny shop. They should be able to find a new gear for you.
I had my torque converter modified as well, it's now a 2200rpm stall.

 

[chad]

1. Other that the occasional starting problems, what can broken flywheel teeth cause?

Additional & continued broken teeth. The starter will miss and smash off more teeth. Harder & harder starting (searchin 4 good teeth).
Also loose metal flyin around in there from broken teeth.

 

[rbohm]

8) new ring gears can be bought from places like autokrafters and national parts depot, among other suppliers.

 

[67-Conv-200]

Yeah, i found the part I need at autozone (FRG-132F).

I am trying to figure out if just the starter broke the teeth. I recently replaced the main bearings, I did one or two at a time and everything was torqued to the specs in the Ford manual. If I did something wrong, could this be a cause? The car has about 100 miles since the bearings were replaced. Also, would a novice be able to replace the ring gear?

 

[67-Conv-200]

I took the inspection plate off and found a small cylinder waiting for me on the bottom. The other was found on the ground below where I took out the starter.

I turned the motor and found a piece of metal stuck in the flywheel

So here is what I found in there so far:

Anyone have an idea what these are from? On the bright side, the flywheel teeth appear to be intact. I need a better socket wrench and I will turn the motor a few more times to make sure everything is clear.

Is it safe to run the car without the inspection plate on?

 

[bubba22349]

Those pieces are likely from an old starter drive stick a magnet into the starter hole and into the bottom of the bell and maybe you will be able to fish all the debris out. Yes you can run it without the inspection cover for awhile but not so good to do very long in dusty areas.

 

[67-Conv-200]

Here is a picture of the metal pieces I found bouncing around with the flywheel:

The car has been running fine since (~100mi) and the only thing difference is that the new starter is louder than the old. In any case, since these are just pieces of the old starter, I will consider this problem fixed.

Thank you everyone.