What's this?

ventura ace · Post by **ventura ace** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 8:52 pm

So, if I understand right, inner diameter is 7/8" and outer diameter is 1.75" diameter. 1/2 circle only. I'll take a look at some parts tonight and see if anything is remotely near that size.

alvon

So Cal Mark · Post by **So Cal Mark** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 9:56 pm

can you take a pic with a ruler or tape measure next to the washer? How did the piece get out of the bellhousing? Was it caught between the flywheel teeth and bellhousing?

mdrburchette · Post by **mdrburchette** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:09 pm

I thought I'd share what I found, just in case someone else ran into this problem. The bendix came apart in my starter and the pieces ended up in the flywheel cover.

http://gallery.italiancarclub.com/124og ... 5.JPG.html

So Cal Mark · Post by **So Cal Mark** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:46 pm

so, I was right with my first assessment! Anyway, I've never seen a drive fail that badly. Was it noisy before the failure?

mdrburchette · Post by **mdrburchette** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 10:31 pm

Yes, you were right. The washer thingy didn't look like it would fit in there but I did find the other half when I pulled the starter. The strange thing is there was no warning the starter was going bad until I heard the first piece get chewed up....then I drove the car 15 miles the same night and didn't have a problem. The next time I started it in the garage, it turned over slow, then seized, making me think the engine was seized. Thank goodness it was just the starter.

So Cal Mark · Post by **So Cal Mark** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 10:51 pm

definitely the lesser of many possible evils. And with all of this practice, you should be getting pretty quick at starter replacement. Just as an aside, I'm working on adapting one of the small hi-torque starters to fit the Fiat block. It's about 1/3 smaller than the oem starter, so replacing it should be a piece of cake

mdrburchette · Post by **mdrburchette** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:22 am

That sounds interesting. I hope you post or progress and pics when it's done. I was seriously considering drilling a hole in the firewall to access that stupid bolt but with my luck that would cause something else to malfunction.

So Cal Mark · Post by **So Cal Mark** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:41 pm

Denise, I happened to be at my rebuilders' shop this morning and I was mentioning to him about your drive failure. He told me that the face of the drive has to be contacting the flywheel, the flywheel wears the end of the drive off and lets the rollers come out. When I told him you had a custom flywheel, he said the solution is to shim the starter so that the drive is at the proper depth. Hope that helps before you have another failure

mdrburchette · Post by **mdrburchette** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:41 pm

Mark, you amaze me! That's exactly what I was going to do. When I told Ron what had happened, he said the next one needed shimmed. He was on a tight time schedule and didn't have time to make sure it was right. I guess that's what happens when you try to appease an impatient wife!

So Cal Mark · Post by **So Cal Mark** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:00 pm

Is it true that impatient and wife always go together?

mdrburchette · Post by **mdrburchette** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:05 pm

Uh, maybe sometimes.

I got my starter on this evening and made sure I shimmed it. I'm surprised it didn't take as long as pulling it off. I must be getting good at this.

It turned over with no weird sounds so I must have done it right.

So Cal Mark · Post by **So Cal Mark** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:31 pm

next you'll be posting that you are pulling the starter each week just because you can do it in 15 mins or less. Maybe you can institute a little competition at the FFO-fastest starter r & r!

mdrburchette · Post by **mdrburchette** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:16 am

I don't think so. I think I'm better off supervising someone else, with a beer in my hand! That starter replacement wouldn't have been half bad then.

Mad-Machine · Post by **Mad-Machine** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:04 pm

I can do a timing belt in less than half an hour.. in a non-2 litre car. The 2.0 takes an extra five minutes due to the crank pulley needing to be removed.

mdrburchette · Post by **mdrburchette** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 3:05 am

Half hour's not unreasonable. Now, if I had to pull the crank pulley, it may never get done...what's your starter replacement time?