Hello everyone so am going to be as brief as possible on this so my original starter took a sh*t on my 98 5 speed tibby, ordered another starter through the dealer and replaced it myself at home. At the time I had a regular trolly jack that lifted the car so high that I could not see above the axle so that resulted on me installing the starter crook it, apparently the solenoid was hitting the shifter cables. Had driven the car for a couple of days and in between those days I was hearing that dreaded noise coming upon starting the tibby. Took it to the shop and lifted it up and noticed the position of the starter then had that starter warrantied, also did my best to bend back main seal flush back on to the tranny case as it was bent from tightening the starter off center. New starter arrived put it in and drove for a couple of days then the same problem arrived....came to the conclusion that the flywheel had already taken enough damage and wasnt going to survive much longer on the remaining teeth it had, finally ordered me a light weight fidanza flywheel. with another new starter and also replaced the clutch while in their. Started the car no problem....at this time I had done the work at the shop so we have a car wash like 25ft from the shop, So I had drove it their to get it washed. Soon as they were done and I hopped in to start the tibby the same noise again!!! Took it home to look at the flywheel and its taking damage again.....I dont understand whats going on and dont want to ruin this pricey flywheel that I just got someone did mention that I might have a ground problem but what do you guys suggest, one last note I should add its a turbo tibby running 16psi of boost thanks ;p

 

Sounds like maybe you've got a shim missing (sometimes called the adapter plate). The Tib uses a shim in front of the flywheel to get the proper spacing. If you accidentally put it behind the flywheel, that will be a problem.

 

A shim? you mean like a flex plate on the automatics?

 

anymore suggestions to my problem? Do the starter bolts come with some type of washers or spacers?

 

Have you done anything to it in the last few days?



If your starters mount is jacked, you may be way out of luck. If not, and the starter can mount properly, then the problem is spacing. The manual and automatic have different non-interchangeable starters. Make sure you have the right part, then make sure it is poking the starting gear out the proper distance to catch the ring gear. That's all there is to the starter. If the gears are not lining up properly, you have to add or remove distance somehow. What other suggestions could there be?

 

^agreed^, needs spacers/shims, its obvious the starter is mateing the flywheel crookedly.

 

UPDATE

the solution to my problem was quite simple and overlooked it as a possible option. I had replaced the clutch & flywheel at the shop but rushed through the service due to the fact I wasn't suppose to be working on my own car "lol". Well going too fast sometimes back fires on you as I forgot to put the bolt on the rear of the transmission that goes on the doll pin by the passenger axle. That would explain why it started fine the first try and had a very difficult time starting the second time due to driving the car home with all the vibration of driving the trans & engine had separated enough at the rear that wasn't sitting flush causing the starter gear to be off and slip off the flywheel ring gear. Thanks a lot guys for the suggestions as I looked for all possible solutions.

 

Well good job getting it sorted, anyway. Next time, don't rush!