3 Gear reduction starters, 1 regular starter, 3 kickdown cables, 1 throttle cable, 4 friends, 2 cops, 3 days, 1 flywheel... and my car seems worse than before. Where to start. FYI if you dont feel like reading this life story skip to the *** I really need help though.

Ok some of you may know I had some starter troubles over the past few months. About 6 months or so ago I had a new starter installed along with my sidepipes. It worked for about 4 and a half months before it started grinding. I got a new one and it worked for about 4 minutes... another new one... same problem... one more for the hell of it. Vola it works! For about a week. Then I get the correct starter installed on my car. It worked for about two weeks and now the flywheel is too torn up to engage with the starter.

Ok so now I take my car to the hobby shop. Work on it for 3 days. Break 2 kickdown cables, get a throttle cable by mistake, pulled out the transmission,

*** replaced the flywheel with a brand new one, put it all back together... and wham... my car doesnt shift right. The kickdown cable isnt working but also it just doesnt shift right into certain gears. Sometimes it goes into park other times it stays in reverse with no reverse lights, reverse works as advertised, neutral sometimes is reverse and I think it also went into drive in neutral. 1-3 work perfectly. Tranny fluid is good, kickdown cable might need to be adjusted, and I'm not totally sure if the linkage is the problem either.

Anyways I manage to get the car off the lift (not totally assembled either) and I get out to the parking lot. Turn the car off and on a few times trying to get it to shift right and stay in park instead of rolling. I decide to drive it a little and mash the gas to see if the kickdown resets everything possibly. Doesnt work. I park it by an ATM and shut it down. When I try to start it again the horrible grinding is back. Two cops question me and one says tow the other says screw him. I jack it up and spin the flywheel by hand. Fails to engage again. Get back under car and the drive gear is still engaged with the flywheel!? I pop it loose and it starts up. I drive to my command hangar (Naval Air Station Jacksonville) and get my leave chit so I can see my family before I'm deployed for 6 months. I leave the car running just in case... oh and put jack stands behind the tires so it doesnt run off on me.

So theres the lonnnggg story.... I seriously hate everything about my life right now. Tried to rush everything and just go home and see my family but nothing is working. I dont know what else it can be. The flywheel didnt help and now its not even shifting right. I can mess with it and get it to park which is fine. But the grinding confuses me and the multiple bad starters also are odd. My 80' Vette has 4 wires running to one terminal on the starter and one smaller wire running to a small terminal. It seems like way too many and might be screwing up my starter? I'm taking it to an auto shop and checking the linkage, kickdown cable, and starter.. hopefuly it doesnt cost too much so I can still drive home like I planned otherwise my car is going to sit there all screwed up until I can fix it or fly home possibly.

Sorry for it being so long and drawn out but I just wanted you all to get the entire story. I feel like crap and I just cant figure anything out. I dont know what is wrong...

 

If the drive gear is still engaged then you, my friend, need a shim. Starters are shimmable for flywheel to drive gear spacing. Go down to the parts store & ask for Chevy starter shims. You should be able to get a pack with several different thicknesses.

 

Look to see if the vacuum modulator is connected.You may need to adjust the tv cable too The shift cable is out of adjustment or the cable is on it's way out. As far as the starter you have had some bad luck.

 

Hey Kadorja, sorry you're running into so many troubles with the car... and the stress of deployment cant be helping. It now sounds like there are multiple things wrong and although they all can be fixed you will need some time and a good shop manual, like the one from GM. Before i give you my suggestion for getting your car fixed, I first just wanted to thanks for serving our country. Many of us don't realize how difficult this is for you and your family.

So here is my idea. I'm not that familiar with Jacksonville, but I would find a high school in the area with an auto shop. Call the principal and tell him (her) your in the service and will be gone for 6 months. You would like to know if their shop class would be willing to get your car back up and running. Fix all known problems and any others that they can find (brakes, tune, etc). You will pay for any parts if they supply the labor. With todays technology, you might be able to communicate with the shop through e-mail, videos, etc for updates. Many high school automotive teachers are pretty good and the kids will love to work on a vette.

Regardless of what you decide, best of luck to you and wishing a safe return.

 

Thanks for all the responses guys. Im going to check the kickdown cable real fast before I take it to Pep Boys and get a starter installed. The flywheel still looks brand new but I cant say the same for the starter. Hopefuly I can get it up and running and have everything fixed by tonight so I can leave tomorrow. $180 for a starter and installation and $20 to check out the trans isnt too bad I guess.

I wish deployment was here and over with so I can throw in my new 350 and new OD trans.... and maybe supercharge the beast

 

New starter installed... car almost rolled of the lift since they didnt tell the guy it didnt like to stay in park. Just got it back home and was getting ready to put header wrap on it and it grinded and got stuck. new flywheel and starter... im lost right now. I'm taking it back for a new starter right now while I still manage to have it running. But the shifting problem seems to of fixed itself lol. It rolled away while I was checking under the hood but i cant get it to roll anymore and Ive tried it at least 15 times now. More to follow

 

Jeff... It almost sounds like your shift cable is the problem. It sounds like when you put it in "park" it's not all the way into park and still partially in reverse. What do you do in the Navy and how long have you been in?

 

It kinda kicks out a little when I put it in park but now its doing alright. I cant seem to get it to pop into reverse to maybe it just needed to slip into the right spot? Pep Boys didnt have their heavy tech guy in so I have to bring it in the morning if I can manage to get it started. I really dont know what else could be the problem now... it sucks. I think im buying plane tickets in the morning and getting rides to work for the next 2 months until I leave. It shouldnt be too bad, at least I can get a head start at putting my car in storage. Hell it doesnt run so I can use the place on base without fear of it getting stolen or not running

Anyways I've been in for a little over 3 years now. This is going to be my 2nd deployment but I am going to be making some decent cash on this one so I had high hopes about throwing a crate motor into my car and some other stuff but I dont know now. I'm an Aviation Electronics Tech. I work on the mighty P-3C Orion... a huge old turd of a plane that hunts subs and drug runs. Its not bad... a whole lot of boxes that usually tell us they're screwed up or not and we replace them Its got some hard work involved though which is always fun. Anyways I smell like fuel (love it) and I need to do laundry, wrap my headers, and put the rest of the beast together before something else screws up.

 

Well heres an update. im flying out tomorrow. i took my car back to pep boys after the last starter failed and they went through about 4 starters trying to get it to work. they looked up my trans and made sure it was the right one but they also asked me about the flywheel i had put on. it had a crapload of holes in it for either balance or to fit multiple vehicles. it starts up "alright" and is still kicking out of reverse but once its in it works for a while. as i was leaving i noticed my air stopped working again and my wipers didnt work... while it was pouring down rain. so naturally i opened the window so it didnt fog up and i drove nice and careful like and spun the tires comming off of every red light

I should be able to get a ride to work so I think im going to put my car in storage for a while, tell my insurance so they can drop my rate, and buy a new motor and trans when I get back. I'm just curious if these year one crate motors im looking at can handle some serious boost from a procharger.... only 8.7:1 compression ratio. anyone know of a serious trans that can handle that hp? 4 spd auto pref.

im sad my baby is going downhill fast