QuestionHey Dick,
You replied to my question about a month ago. I did everything you told me to do and it turned out to be a dead battery, very easy. But now I have a different problem. After I charged the battery, I went to start it and it was cranking over but not starting (i felt like it was going to eventually). Then it stopped cranking and it just made a loud sound from the starter again. So i went under the car and looked and the aluminum nose of the starter was cracked. I have another starter handy so I throw that one in there and try starting again. Sounds real rough again when I turn the key. So i go back under and see that the starter gear is still engaged barely to the flywheel and it needs to be shimmed closer to the flywheel. I add a shim and go to start again. Same noise. Go back under and starter gear is still too far away. I was going to add another half shim and that's when I notice that the nose on this starter is cracked as well in the same area. So here is where I stand now. I have looked into this proble a little bit. I thought maybe the flywheel had the wrong number of teeth. It has 153 so that should be correct for a 327. I didn't notice any cracked teeth or crack in the flywheel. I also found out that I don't have a starter brace. Do you think this is the only cause of the starter nose breaking, or what other suggestions do you have. Thanks again, your help is very appreciated.
Mike
AnswerI don't recall your particular car (after some 1500 Q's and A's I'm getting fuzzy recall?), but if it has standard transmission, and if you live on a tall hill, can you get the car started without using the starter? If so, I'd like to see if the flywheel is running true, and is not screwed up in some way. The lack of a starter brace isn't likely to be the only problem here - although it would be good to find one and install it.
The wrong number of teeth on either the flywheel or the starter pinion was my first thought. I tried to verify your 153 count, but my Hollander's is too old. I know there were also 168 tooth flywheels on small blocks - it is possible that you have two wrong starters, unless you know that the car was OK with these parts before.
Do the teeth look OK on the starter. Can you see where the starter is gouging the flywheel - maybe that would give a hint as to what is out of position, if the tooth count is right.
You've done everything I can think of at the moment - but something is seriously out of whack, but I don't know what. Has the transmission been out of the car since it last was OK? If so, maybe something is wrong with the bell housing.
Sorry not to be more help - I think if you keep looking and testing, you will track it down.
I guess the next step I would try is to find a known good, correct starter, and very carefully install it, leaving the solenoid off, so you can manually pull the pinion into engagement with the flywheel while you watch (take the flywheel cover off the bottom if it has one). Of course you could do this with the ruined starter too, but you might come to a wrong conclusion that way.
Good luck!
Dick
