axl911

Ever thought of just whacking the starter /w a hammer?

dgmattingley

That was my first thought, until I saw the sticker.

dgmattingley

Bear with me as a venture into electronics for dummies. Let's see if I got this right: I take the negative clamp from the battery charger and affix it somehow to the body of the starter. Then I take the postive clamp from the battery charger and connect it to the 50A stud. Finally, I fashion some type of connection from the 50A stud and attach to the the 30A stud, and once I turn on the battery charger the starter gear mechanism should deploy.

C4S993

Don't do it, let a mechanic take a look at it. The current via this un-fused method is way too high to chance it going through you to ground.

d ward

Why? might feel it if you stuck it on your tongue but other than that its not enough to be dangerous
Only risk maybe overloading the battery charger if its not man enough.
I'd be inclined to use a car battery & some long jumper cables (long enough to keep the battery at a safe distance, in case of sparks)

C4S993

Just take starter to Autozone and have them bench test it. Of course they would then try and sell you a new one.

dgmattingley

Fortunately testing the starter became a moot issue because I finally got it to work. The culprit was the starter ground strap, which must've gotten pulled during the engine tranny drop just enough to loosen at the point it affixes to the body in the wheel well. So for now I've rigged the ground cable to another location. Once I tightened everything up again, it started right up.

I let the car run for 10 minutes to get up to operating temp and check for leaks again. So far so good with cylinder 2, no leaks. I haven't gone for a drive yet, will report back once I actually have her back out on the road!

C4S993

When you get a sec what theory do you think makes most sense for the first time around weeping oil ?

dgmattingley

I'm going with the theory that it was either the cyl 2 base o ring being twisted or the through bolts. All 4 of the thru bolts had evidence of oil leaking through. The thing that doesn't make sense is, why those four and none of the others? Perhaps we didn't torque them properly. Hard to say. The o ring at the base of cyl 2 makes the most sense, but it was in place and undamaged. Really hard to pinpoint the problem, but fingers crossed it looks like the leak is gone (for now). After this adventure, I've become a big fan of adding a little sealant wherever possible.

Mike J

Great news Don! Did you follow my **** oil change schedule?

1 - Fire up for 20 minutes to full temperature, keep the RPM's over 2000, then change both oil/filters. Oil comes out nice and black (with some shiney bits) due to the break-in and lubes

2 - Go for a 30 minute drive, come back, change both oil/filters.

3 - Go for a 2 hour drive (100 miles), change both oil/filters.

4 - Drive for 1500 miles, change both oil/filters.

- then back to normal programming.

LOL!

Cheers,

Mike

dgmattingley

Mike,
That's about the same routine as I plan on doing. When you do this much work to get the engine in shape, the **** oil change routine seems like it should be a given. I've already dumped the oil and changed filters once after the initial 20 min at 1800-2500 rpm. It was indeed black with assembly lube and some shiny bits from the new bearings, etc. The work week just keeps getting in the way of finishing it all up and going for a drive. It's been 7 months!

dgmattingley

I thought I'd update this thread after the first 500 miles on the rebuild.

First I want to thank all of those who have chimed in to assist, or who have otherwise helped with this project: Mike J, Emerald, Geolab, Roche993, John Vrankovich, Richard Curtis, Steve Weiner, and Chapman AutoWerks of Northern Virginia.

With just over 500 miles I can report that everything is so far, so good. Not to jinx myself, but I'm free of oil leaks and the engine seems to be running great. I finally sorted the starter issue, which turned out to be that the ground strap was loose at the body. A trusty local wrench fashioned a new connection point and all has been good since then.

I did notice that the engine seemed to be running very rich for a period of time as there was a strong fuel smell in the cabin, but that seems to have corrected itself. I have completely removed the SAI blower and plumbing. At about 200 miles the CEL went on, I assume for an SAI fault. My plan is to build the circuit documented here on RL for fooling the ECU. Hopefully that works.

The only other issue I have is a "clicking" clutch slave. The feel is fine, but at low speeds you can hear an audible click, sometimes two clicks, as the clutch pedal is pressed in. The clutch slave and line are new, as is the master cylinder, and I of course bled the system before driving. I'm just hoping it's not the fork or the pressure plate because I am in no mood to go through a tranny drop after all this work!

Mike J

Excellent news!!

I assume you put a little grease on the end the slave cylinder pin where it engages the fork?

Did you replace the needle bearings or fuss with them? If something happened there (like a missing needle) it could click.

Great work, and you showed excellent endurance with the correction of the oil leak!

Have you done a compression/leakdown test yet, or you waiting for it all the bed? At 500 miles, it should be good.

Cheers,

Mike

dgmattingley

I did grease the slave pin with a little olista. I also replaced the needle bearings and seals. I'm in absolutely no mood to investigate but the click is just annoying enough that I might break down and mess with it at some point. Or I might take it to Taylor Chapman's shop and let him do it on the lift. Dropping the tranny by itself is not a fun job, especially when you do it alone!

No compression/leakdown yet. I am curious to know the numbers, but at the same time I almost don't want to know. I'm going to monitor oil consumption and see where I'm at first.

Mike J

There are some guys who have had that little click and driven the car for years - so I would not get too stressed about it for now.

The fact that your engine is running great is the best news of all!'

For the CEL, did you check the code?

Cheers,

Mike