I had a loudrattling sound on my Jimmy for about a week and finally got it to my mechanic. He said my starter needed to be rebuilt/replaced and the return spring was broken. Are these two parts related and when the return spring breaks, what does that do to the system? It ran with no problems when the noise was present with no engine lights or anything, so I'm just a lil curious. Thanks in advance!

 

On chevrolet starters the solenoid has a internal coil wound spring to release the starter gear away from the flywheel, should the spring fail then the gear could hit the flywheel and cause damage to the geared ring on the flywheel used to start the vehicle...