Starter motor problems - Big problems!

[Pickard1 0]

After my other problem here

I have been driving around with the ingition column not quite right whilst I wait for the replacement to arrive.

 

This was fine until last night I got in the car without paying proper attention. I managed to drive off with the starter motor engaged. I covered about a mile before I noticed something was making a bit of a rattle.

 

Needless to say the car wont start now, the starter motor sounds like its turning but there is just a high pitched whine. :oops:

Am I likely to have caused major damage? Im concerned that the drive gear that turns the flywheel may have destroyed itself and be deposited around the internals of my flywheel housing/clutch....

 

I was going to attempt to take the starter motor assy out tonight and inspect for damage. I seem to remember with my old 16v that the bolt welt through the engine mount or something. Is it the same arrangement on a G60? Do I need anything special to whip the starter motor out?

Cheers,

Dan :(

[davidwort 0]

support the engine, either from above or with a jack and block of wood from below, 2 of the 3 engine bracket bolts are also the starter ones.

I'd have thought a turning engine would throw the starter gear back into the starter away from the flywheel.

[Pickard1 0]

OK I have started this job. All charger pipes, radiator fan, wiring etc removed so I have a clean veiw of the starter motor.

 

I am just a little unsure as to supporting the engine.

Would a bit of wood on my jack under the gearbox be enough?

As I see it I could use the sump - which is presumably pretty thin or the gearbox which is aluminium. Which is the lesser of two evils....?

Secondly will the engine drop much? how much should I jack the engine up? I presume just enough to 'take the strain'

 

Any help greatly appreciated as I have the car in pieces!!

 

Cheers,

dan

[davidwort 0]

yep fine, just under the sump is OK, although the gearbox would be fine too, sump is plenty strong enough as long as you spread the jacking point a little with a piece of wood.

For the starter you don't need to undo the front 17mm bolt on the side of the engine mount bracket, only the two long ones for the starter motor, this helps keep everything aligned for when you put the bolts back in.

When you do put the bolts back in you may need to raise the jack/engine a little more to get those long bolts to bite into the threads in the gearbox mount, it just seems to drop a small amount when you take them out, enough to make it hard to get the bolts started.

[nick vr6 0]

I changed the starter motor on my VR6 last week and if I remember correctly the starter bolts are 16mm.

When I came to replace bolts, the shorter of the 2 went in easily but I had to jack up engine slightly to get the long bolt to bite into thread of engine mount.

[Pickard1 0]

It was only after extracting all three bolts that I realised what davidwort was meaning when he said just take the two out.

I have re-inserted the third bolt now. Whai i found was that when i jacked up the engine the gap stayed the same, i actually got the holes to meet up by pushing down on the engine mount which was slightly springy.

Probably that means ive got a buggered engine mount as well......lol

 

Anyway, the good news was that the starter was completely intact so the motor must be burnt out, but nothing more serious.

 

The new starter from GSF was the wrong one, even though i brought bosch. It had 3 holes rather than 2. It looks like they have changed the design so that all three bolts go through the engine mount rather than two, as some kind of a cost saving excersise no doubt! :lol:

 

Now i have the old unit off will get the correct part next week.

 

Is it worth taking some pictures or would it be teaching people to suck eggs :?

[mattkh 0]

Hi

Please take pictures and show them.