I was trying to start my 82 yesterday after replacing the housing on the starter, it turned over great for the first couple of times, but after a few times it started to grind, not sure what would cause it to do that, work fine then just go to ****. Any ideas/help?

 

Replaced just the housing?

Why?

 

I wonder if your starter bolts loosened up. Are you running higher compression?

 

I'm not sure what the compression ratio is on it honestly...., and by housing I meant the head, the cast aluminium part of it. Because it had a crack in it, I think I bumped it when I set the motor in.

 

The whole starter was rebuilt, prior to installation of the motor, and I cracked the housing, when setting it in, so I replaced it, put it back on, turned the motor over and it cranked, sounded fine, and then just went to ****... nothing broke or anything from what I saw

 

If you mashed the starter hard enough to crack the forward housing, you probably mashed the armature assembly into the field coils, and/or twisted the rear armature support bushing, crushed the brushes, or some such.

Assuming the starter was rebuilt right in the first place, you could dig into it to try to figure out what else was damaged if you really want to make a project out of it. If it just needs brushes, they don't cost much -- if thats all it it needs.

Otherwise, OEM-style starters are not that expensive.
See http://www.summitracing.com/search/m...-type/starters

 

Just cracked off the housing that holds the solenoid, nothing internal was broke, checked it all when I replaced the housing. I think it could be because the bolts loosened a little, or possibly because I forgot to put this on:

http://htsmall.elcaminostore.com/***...ku/11-5853.jpg

Maybe it let the starter shift?

 

The starter has a brace for a reason.

Re-installation with ALL the parts is highly recommended.

 

Will do, thats the plan tomorrow, should I put a shim on it, or just put it back how I had it initially? I was told by the PO he was shimming the outside bolt on the starter, but I thought both had to be shimmed... never asked why because it hadn't crossed my mind

 

http://www.allstarperformance.com/do...ni_Starter.pdf

The reason I asked about the compression is I have a lot of problems in my Nova which has pretty high compression and locked out timing. It will loosen the bolts on the starter. The last time it even bent the starter bolts. Make sure you are using the knurled starter bolts.

 

Did you relube the starter shaft before installing it into the new cone??

 

Uh oh...... I didn't know it had to be lubed......

 

If the PO was using a shim, you can only assume there was a fitment issue. That is something you will now need to evaluate. You may want to manually operate the engagement mechanism to ensure that the pinion engages the ring correctly.

 

Looking at the bendix you can see where the flywheel was being caught about halfway up the teeth, so it seems like it was catching it good. I got in touch with the PO he said he had shimmed the one side because it was cracking the starter bolt hole (the housing around the hole) I personally don't understand that, but you can see where it is cracked slightly. He said he was using a flat washer inbetween the starter, and block on the outside bolt. Anyone ever heard of something like this?


Thank you all for the help, and patience.

 

yep, i had a problem like that with the outside bolt hole being cracked. its usually caused by somebody using the wrong bolts. your probably gonna continue to have problems until you get the crack repaired unfortunetly. put that brace on there and shim your starter properly for now. might get lucky?

 

Well, even without the flat washer, and the brace it turned over great the first few times, guess i'll stick a washer on it, and that brace and see if that'll help it. If not, I suppose I can weld the crack while I am under there?

 

By all means, REPAIR busted metal where you can. It's YOUR car. Many times, repair shops only patch things that could be repaired. Take the time to do it right. Make it BETTER if you are able.