mattster03

iTrader: (22)

This is just horrible bad luck for me because I am supposed to be selling my car next week . Rather than starting the car made a grinding noise so I removed the starter to check it out. I found out that not only was the starter flange broken, but the nose of the starter that supports the gear shaft broke off!

Has anyone seen something like this? Nothing weird happened prior to the grinding and the car ran and drove just fine after we push started it to get it home.

The big concern that I have right now is that a huge chunk of the starter nose is floating around in the bellhousing. Thoughts?

billymgb1000

you say it ran fine after you push started it ? the only time I heard of this happening is when one of the cylinders were filled with antifreeze and you get locked up and then the starter breaks off. but if it started with a push I am at loss. did it smoke when it started?

Old Geezer

iTrader: (3)

Loose bolt[s]. U hit the key, the torque of the starter twisted it, the nose came off.
U R asking for bigger problems, if you continue to push start it, and that chunk of metal gets caught up in the clutch......

mattster03

iTrader: (22)

That was my innitial thought too... but absolutely no smoking or signs of head gasket problems.

mattster03

iTrader: (22)

The bolts seemed pretty tight when I loosened the starter. Yeah, definitely won't be driving it until I get out any aluminum that may or may not be in there. I think I'll be taking off the transmission no matter what... so much friggen work

joecar

The short bolt on the thin starter tab was installed overtight, this caused the tab to fracture, this then causes the long bolt on the other (thick) tab to take all the twisting/lateral stress, this usually causes the long bolt to break off a chunk of engine block where it is threaded into.

03Sssnake

iTrader: (20)

Did you loose any part of the engine block where the starter thread bosses are?

mattster03

iTrader: (22)

I checked and thank goodness no damage to the block. The overtight bolt makes a lot of sense, and when I was removing the starter I did note that the short bolt seemed quite tight. Does this also explain the nose breaking?