Starter noise / Binding

[punkrocker00406]

Ok heres my situation. I got my transmission rebuilt by shep, did the break in period, and went to the track. On my second run i broke the front passenger CV shaft, but luckily it broke in a way that the length of the shaft fell out and the inner cup was still in the transmission and i could limp the car home. But after that broke, i got down to the track exit stopped and picked up my time slip, pulled into the grass to look under the car to see what I had broken then when i got back into the car and started it the starter was making a noise it had never made before. The noise is kinda hard to describe, you can tell its struggling to turn the engine over then when the engine fires and starts and makes almost a grinding noise but its more like that starter is just binding on the flywheel. Like something Isn't lining up the way its supposed to. Well my first thought was to go get a new starter. Got one, installed it, still does the same thing. Also, i reached my hand back in behind the motor and laid it on the started and had my dad start the car and you can feel it is obviously coming from the starter its self. I was thinking maybe the flywheel was coming loose but that should affect my clutch shouldn't it? My clutch is still working fine. Anyone have any other thoughts?

PS. I did research this topic for about an hour and didn't find any similar situations.

 

[punkrocker00406]

Bump, Anyone?

 

[unlmtdndeavor]

It could potentially be the ring gear on the flywheel having come unaligned. Pull the starter, shine a light down there, see if the ring gear is still seated nice and straight on the flywheel.

 

[punkrocker00406]

Thank you for the reply. Here's an update on what I've found so far. I pulled the transmission to check the flywheel out and all bolts were tight and ring gear is sitting flush against the flywheel. I test fitted the starter in its hole in that spacer plate between the block and transmission and it didnt seem to want to sit flat in that hole. So I took that plate off and pounded it flat the way it was supposed to be, ran some light sandpaper on the inside of the hole for the starter and re-installed and and now the starter sits nice and flat in it. I'm a little sceptical that that was my problem, but if it wasnt I'm pretty much stumped. Ive eliminated all other possibilites I can think of. The starter its self is BRAND NEW, I just bought it 2 days ago, the bell housing isnt cracked or anything like that, the block isnt cracked or anything, both tranmission dowls are installed properly so the transmission can't be out of alignment, and the pressure plate/ring gear are all where they are supposed to be. So, as of right now I'm in the process of putting the tranmission back in to see if by some chance of a miralce it was just that spacer plate not letting the starter sit quite flush. I will update as soon as i get it back together and try to start it. But in the mean time if anyone else has any other suggestions I would love to hear them. Thanks!

 

[punkrocker00406]

Another update. Got it all back together and it starts nice and smooth like it should. And other then taking everything apart and putting it back together the only thing i changed was that spacer plate like i said in my last update. So I'm thinking that probably must have been it. But like a typical DSM i was out driving it today very excited that my starter was fixed, and took my friend for a ride. Did a 1-4th gear pull, turned around to go back to where I picked my buddy up from and did another 1-4th gear pull and as 4th gear was getting close to topping out it missed a little bit, not bad. I let off, passed a car, went to get back on it a little bit and it was still missing.It was obviously only running on 2 or 3 cylinders. To make a long story short, I limped it home the best I could. It tried to overheat on the way so i had to stop and let it cool then continue limping it home. Got it home, and left it running. Wiggled all 4 injector plugs because my car used to cut out from time to time if you could wiggle them, that didn't make any change. Started pulling spark plug wires one by one to see which cylinders werent firing and from left to right looking at the engine from the front of the car, when i pulled the wires off of the left to cylinders it stalled. When i pulled the right 2 wires off nothing changed. Well i got my compression tester out and from left to right my compression readings were 115, 95, 0, 0. . So I'm thinking I blew the head gasket and probably need new rings.