I finally got my engine in and all the electrical stuff connected, filled with oil and it won't start. It's like the starter hangs and the engine won't turn over. I have a brand new battery and I have charged but no go. All the lights turn on I can disable the imobilizer but nothing. The engine sounds like a dead battery, just a click and nothing.

Any ideas on what I f-ed up on my clutch job. I made sure that the starter ring was installed right, the lip facing the pressure plate. I did use the clutch alignment tool when I put the pressure plate on. Everything seemed to go in fine when I mated up the trans to the engine.

Is it possible to install the starter up side down. Do I just have bad luck with a bad starter now. Am I missing a connection on the starter. It seems straight forward that the battery wire goes with the larger wire, and the same with the smaller wire.

The last thing is that I think one of the O2 sensor connectors is broken so it won't go in. Could this not make a car start.


I also had the distributor rebuilt. I did make sure that the rotors pointed to the TDC location. But wouldn't I get the engine to turn over but no spark?

Any help would be great.


EDIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I looked at Toga's print out again and I think it may be the starter ground wire. I think I may have got this mixed up.

 

If you dont figure it out I will try to help out a little.

1- you cant put the starter in upside down so dont worry about that.
2- O2 sensor will not stop a motor from cranking.
3- distributor even if not set right will not stop a motor from cranking.

I would check to make sure that the wiring to the starter is correct. make sure you have the positive from the battery+the wire from the alternator on the correct terminal on the starter.

The large negative ground from the body bolts to the lower bellhousing starter housing bolt.

Good luck

 

Woo-Hoo! It was the ground for the starter. After a lot of digging around up there I found it. The wires have a bend to them so they go where they are supposed to go. All of a sudden the ground wire appeared and it went right on the starter bolt.

I cranked it over, it took a little bit of cranking, but it finally started.

Maybe I am hyper sensitive but it sounds a little different, nothing drastic. But it rev's much more free with the LWFW. I need to put the wheels back on and take it for a spin.

 

Congratulations! That is great news. Impressive work!

 

Congrats I had the some thing happen to me. Man it is a good feeling when you find out what it is and the thing fires up!!! Great job glad you got it.
Baron

 

How many hours do you have in taking the motor out, swapping clutch and putting it back in?

 

Too Long! Since you asked, here are some of the gory details.

When I dropped the motor it took about 8 hours, but that was futzing with stupid stuff, and taking way too much time. I had actually never even done an oil change before I took on the task of dropping the engine. 6 hours is probably the right number. Get the oil out the night before, it will save a lot of time.

Once you split the trans from the engine I would say about 1 hour to get the clutch done. The clutch is the easy part, the RMS takes a little time if you have never done it and have no idea how hard you have to hit the seal to get it seated. Make sure you have the right 12 point (cheesehead) bits to get everything off and the clutch alignment tool. Also, I had all the bearing pressed in by a shop. I was warned you can f-up a throwout bearing pretty easily. I got the parts from sunset, and in hindsight I should have asked them to press everything in.

What took me so long is that I put the engine on a stand so that I can remove the heat exchangers / headers to do the roto-rooter SAI flush. I also changed plugs plug wires, Distributor belt fix, injectors cleaned, replaced ALL the belts and replaces valve cover gaskets. The SAI was a pain.

When it finally was time to put the trans back on and get the engine in my buddy stood me up so I ended up doing everything by myself...everything. I had the engine on my lift cart and the trans sitting on a case of Brad Penn oil to get the right height. Then I sat on the trans and pulled the engine to get it to go together. I had to use my phone-a-friend to call Robin for help with the clutch fork. You have to tape it and pretend it's in the right place then put the trans on, then put shaft. This took me a couple of hours when it really should have been a 30 minute job with 2 people.

Once the trans was mated up I situated everything so that it all was on the cart and I wheeled it under the car and started lifting. Amazingly it went up and in without any problems, with just me. It probably took 1 hour to get the engine in, not really a big deal. But this was just me and I was doing a lot of back and forth to make sure I didn't hit anything.

With the engine / trans in the tough part was getting the suspension parts lined up and torqued right. I wasted a ton of time putting things on and taking things off to get at bolts. Like don't put the control arm in before you torque the cross member because it's in the way. And the drivers side eccentric bolt won't come out because the heat exchanger is in the way. Just lift the engine a little and it will clear...This should have taken 3 hours or so.

The topside is very easy, it's just plugging things in. The AC compressor is a bit tricky. This is probably 1 hour.

This is a very doable project if you have the right tools. I bought a mid-rise lift and a good table lift and that is what saved me a lot of time. I did not have to remove the bumper cover, everything when under. No clearance issues at all. I don't know how people do this with jack stands.

For the record, I think Robin has done this in 13 hours straight, but he as done it a bunch of times and Chris Walrod helped.

I used Toga's DIY and I was very good. There were a fews spots with some holes but nothing major.

I will post some pictures soon of the setup I used.

 

Timely thread. Tried to start mine after drop and car acted like it had a dead battery. I found the ground wire hiding out on top of the tranny. Connected to lower 10mm hex on the starter and bam! started right up!!! Thanks for blazing the path!