Bottom end noise? Or a bad Starter?

[marek4792]

So in this past month, I had noticed a noise that was akin to a fuel knock when shutting the engine off. Sounded like "pop pop" before the engine stops turning. Sounded like top end noise, popped the valve cover off nothing looks off started and shut off the engine, nope not coming from there. Put cover back on and repeated start and stop and quickly crawling within earshot of the bell housing, definitely coming from that area. Then it became intermittent and noticed the starter and solenoid seemed weak at times.. Well at 900k miles and the solenoid sticking intermittently figured I pull the original Mitsubishi starter out and replace it. That's when I found out a $1 horseshoe clip had left the chat and that the gear was just hanging out.. Threw another Mitsubishi starter at it and no more issue with noises.