The tale of the another 350 chevy
 

Hey all,

Here is my dillema: Some of you may know of the starter issues id been having with my 350 chevy. Well i replaced the starter not too long ago with one from a local junkyard, and finally got that to work. The only thing that I have changed on that motor was some of the underhood wiring, because it was hooked up incorrectly (alternator wires were hooked to some kind of connector). Anyways, I hadn't started it before, just turned it over, because my uncle had his old cutlass behind me and i didnt want to blow dust everywhere. Well today I started it, and as soon as it started, it began making this whinning noise. Before i put this new starter in the engine sounded good and healthy. And from my knowledge rewiring something wouldn't cause the noise im hearing. So basically I wanted some opinions as to what it is. I was thinking maybe the bendix is bad on the starter causing it to stick to the flywheel? I couldnt get it to run long enough to locate where the sound was coming from. Thanks all.

The starter made the noise ?
do u need starter shims

unplug the power to coil or hei
if you need it to turn over
without it starting to listen to it

Sounds like the starter is not disengaging and the engine is spinning the starter.

Will whine like crazy.

Rich

i just thought about it and realized maybe i have it shimmed too tight to the flywheel causing it to not disengage when it starts. I started it without power to the distributor and it disengages, but i think it doesnt when i go to start it with power to the distributor.

Well then it sounds like you are backfeeding the solenoid if your wiring is in fact holding it up.

Rich

yeah im pretty sure its the starter not disengaging, because it does whine like crazy. Ill try taking a shim out and see how that works.

I thought you said it stopped when you disconnected the wire?

yeah it did quit whinning, but i was thinking that maybe it was different when the engine fires, because it spins quicker and may not have enough time to get loose *shrugs*

if you take a shim out, it will be to tight, add a shim

Nope, I dont think so.

The wire that goes to the "s" (inside small terminal) on the starter. Is it easy to get disconnected while the vehicle is running?

You only have two wires going to the starter? The main battery cable and the smaller one going to the above mentioned terminal.

Keep in mind, you need to get this fixed asap. That starter is NOT going to last long. Don't run the engine long.

Rich

yeah i have the small 12 gauge wire going to the "s" terminal, and the positive battery wire going to the big post on the starter. I'm not sure how whether the distributor wire being hooked up or not affects if the starter keeps spinning, but im not the most knowledgable about car wiring either. What i did the other day was changed some of the underhood wiring. I was checking all my wiring out to make sure it was good (no frayed wires , etc.) and noticed that a wire from the alternator, the sensing wire, was hooked up to a connector. According to the wire diagram i have (out of a haynes manual) it shows that the sensing wire should be hooked up to one of the main feeds to the alternator. So i hooked it up to that. *shrugs* so you dont think its a shimming issue then? thanks for all your responses

So what happens when you unhook the alternator?

Sounds like your wiring is wrong and the alternator is backfeeding the solenoid circuit and keeping it cranking


Rich

I followed the wiring diagram out of the haynes book, but maybe that is not right. I'll try unhooking the alternator and see if that affects my starter issue. How are the wires from the alternator connected on a 1976 Pontiac Trans Am?

wait a second, i think we got confused. I unhooked the power wire to the distributor and spun the engine over and my starter didnt whine, I didnt unplug any other wires. were you thinking i unplugged some other wire?