1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Oh, oh--you may be experiencing what I just went through with mine.
The flywheel that the starter engages is attached to a large steel ring, that ring is bolted to the torque convertor. The two pieces are joined with soft steel rivets. On my car the rivets loosened up and made a terrible sound when I started the car. Eventually it got loose enough that it ruined the drive gear in the starter.
Pull off the plastic flywheel cover, grab the flywheel with your hand (motor not running of course) and see if you can wiggle it at all. If so, the rivets are probably failing.
If they are bad, you can do what I did. I used a Dremel to grind the peened ends off the rivets; I carefully pushed them out half way and grabbed them with a needle-nose plier on the back side (you don't want to lose any where they can be picked up by the spinning flywheel later); then I replaced them with stainless screws and lock nuts. For insurance I also put a little tack weld in to keep them from coming undone.
The rivets have a cone-shaped head like a machine screw. That makes them easy to match with hardware. You can get access to put the screws into each hole down below where the flange on the trans meets the lower engine block on the driver's side. I did one at a time. I turned the flywheel up so I could get access at the top to cut and pull each rivet, then I turned the flywheel down to put the hardware in, then turned it back again to tighten things up. There are two thin metal parts that get rivetted on too. One has the timing marks on it, the other is a counterbalance. Make sure you put them in the same place or you'll get an unbalanced situation.
Ironically, Michael, I was at Richard Cherry's this evening just down the road from you. I could have stopped by and helped you with this personally. :-)
This may not be your issue even, but it's worth checking.
posted by 69.204.159...
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