Yay, I fixed my starter problem! Sort of!
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 69,020
Likes: 0
From: Bagpipes put the "fun" in "funeral"
Yay, I fixed my starter problem! Sort of!
After carefully negotiating my vette 3 notches up on the jackstands, I was finally able to get at the starter, in an attempt to replace it or rebuild the solenoid.
Got one cable off easily, couldn't get a good angle on the other one, so I tried to unbolt the whole unit first.... no go. I'm gonna need an impact wrench to break those loose.
Which posed a problem to me, because that means I'd need to get my car on a lift, which would involve starting it and driving it to the nearest lift (Bigtoe's house!)
I bolted the wire back on. At this point, there are two options.... after getting a new starter, I'd coast backwards out of the garage, pop the clutch in reverse and clutch-start it. Ugh.
So I chose option #2, something any self-respecting mechanic would have done-- I pounded the starter repeatedly with a hammer. Then I hooked the battery back up and decided to give the key a little flick, just long enough to hear that the starter actually engaged!
Then I lowered the car back down to the ground (a 10 minute process of going side to side lowering the stands another notch) and it fired right up.
Great, so I bought myself some time at least, now that I know there's a good chance I can start it again to drive it on a real lift.
From now on, I think they hammer method is the first thing I'll try to fix any problem!
Got one cable off easily, couldn't get a good angle on the other one, so I tried to unbolt the whole unit first.... no go. I'm gonna need an impact wrench to break those loose.
Which posed a problem to me, because that means I'd need to get my car on a lift, which would involve starting it and driving it to the nearest lift (Bigtoe's house!)
I bolted the wire back on. At this point, there are two options.... after getting a new starter, I'd coast backwards out of the garage, pop the clutch in reverse and clutch-start it. Ugh.
So I chose option #2, something any self-respecting mechanic would have done-- I pounded the starter repeatedly with a hammer. Then I hooked the battery back up and decided to give the key a little flick, just long enough to hear that the starter actually engaged!
Then I lowered the car back down to the ground (a 10 minute process of going side to side lowering the stands another notch) and it fired right up.
Great, so I bought myself some time at least, now that I know there's a good chance I can start it again to drive it on a real lift.
From now on, I think they hammer method is the first thing I'll try to fix any problem!
