FirstCoastCobraClub

Hi All,
Been some time since you have heard from me. The wife and I have been busy touring the country having a great time . I also had some health issues that are starting to improve. Well enough of the excuses. For those of you that did not know we went to London Ohio for the Cobra show last June. Well the Cobra sat untouched till about two weeks ago when I decided to start it up and get the fluids going. Well it started after a few tries but there was a god awful squealing noise. My first thought was the throw-out bearing but it didn't change when the clutch pedal was depressed or not. I decided to let it run to see if maybe it was due to some rust because of sitting idle for so long hoping this would be a simple fix, Ha Ha!! Well nothing changed after running it for a short time so I decided to check it out at a later date. Yesterday I put the car on the lift and found the starter hanging at an odd angle. After taking it off the car and having a closer look I found that the starter motor is attached to the mounting plate ( the one with the two bolts that typically screw into the bell-housing) with two # 10-32 flat head Allen screws. O} Talk about the week link in a chain. Well at some point one or both of the #10-32 screws came loose and because of this the starter housing, where one of the screws attached, broke and the proceeded to chew up the starter drive gear along with part of the housing. :GR> I decided that my best option would be to call Frank at BDR and see if he could get one out to me before Saturday so we can join the rest of the ACAC in the Christmas parade. Frank had Brian in the parts dept. call me and I ordered a new starter. It is supposed to arrive on Thursday and I plan on installing it on Friday. :P Brian said they never had that happen to one of their starters before. I'm hoping the two #10-32 screws on the new starter were coated with Locktite when assembled I didn't see any evidence of this on the old ones, but they were pretty beat up.

I'll let you know how I make out.
Carl

P.S. Any one with a BDR might want to take a look at their starters to ensure that they don't have the same problem.

Carl,

Glad things are looking up ..]

Hate to ask this but has to be done: is there any possibility that the flywheel teeth were damaged? Before you put the new starter in, make sure they are OK otherwise you may get to buy yet another starter.

Fingers crossed,

Tom

Hi Tom,
The teeth I can see look fine. My guess is that the flywheel teeth are much harder so the starter drive gear will fail before the flywheel teeth.
I'm sure I will have to pull all the spark plugs and then turn the motor over with a screw driver against the flywheel teeth if possible. What do you think?

Carl

Carl,

If the plugs are accessible that's ideal. If there's enough room at the front, I'd turn the crank there - I can come over to help if you need another hand.

Does the front of the bellhousing have a removable sheetmetal inspection cover?

Tom

Hi Tom,
After having a second look I feel the flywheel teeth are fine. It stands to reason that all the teeth should have some damage seeing that the starter gear was in constant contact with the flywheel. The starter gear had the leading edge of the teeth worn down to just about nothing. I have seen teeth chipped or missing on a flywheel but I don't think this is the case in this instance. Not sure what size socket I will need to fit on front of crank. I think the largest socket I have is 1 1/4 ". The plugs are not that difficult to remove. The car is on the lift at the moment. I hate to disturbe you from your appointed tasks. I'll call if I run into a problem.
Thanks,
Carl

Carl,

Usually a 15/16 deep socket does the trick

Tom

Just got off the phone with Brian at BDR ( Iconic Parts ) It seems he was to busy to send out my starter yesterday \O so now it won't get here till about 5:00 pm tomorrow is his estimate. UPS usually delivers to this neighborhood at around 7:30 to 8:00 pm in the evening. Looks like I'll be burning the midnight oil tomorrow night. :GR> Don't know what the weather forecast is for Saturday, if it is going to rain then there will be no reason to rush.
Carl

Well the starter came in at about 3:00 pm Friday ..] . Had it all wrapped up by 4:00 pm. Cleaned n polished car till 7:00 pm. We had a great time in the parade. Viper, our little Yorkie was a hit with the children. All in all everything worked out for the best. BTW the new starter performed 10 times better than the old one. The old starter must have been defective from the beginning. It would turn over like the motor was on a massive compression stroke every time I tried to start the motor.
Carl

Did Viper have a tiny Santa hat?

BTW ~~[<

Viper had a Christmas scarf and a red and black hat. He was so cute, everyone loved him. I don't know how to post picks from my phone to my computer. It says it recognizes the phone but thats as far as I can get.
Carl