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I am beginning to wonder if my Rose is not a "garage queen"! I started her up yesterday to take her to the painters to get those "paint blemishes" checked out that she was cited for on her first showing. When I kicked over the starter, I heard a Ca-Ching sound for a few seconds and it went away. I am sitting there behind the wheel wondering, "What the heck was that!?" Since it went away right off the bat, I backed her out of the garage. I turned her off, and went into the house to secure it. When I came back, I started her again. This time it was a lot more than just a Ca-Ching sound going on! There was all kinds of noise and sounds! I am sitting there wondering if my transmission just went out, threw a rod, broke a piston, or if my fan came loose or what! I turned her off, opened the hood, and like anyone who has no knowledge at all about automobiles, stuck my head under the hood and looked for anything that might look wrong. You know, giant python wrapped around the engine or starter, a flood of biblical proportions pouring out of the engine block, or radiator, fan hanging down behind the radiator, etc.. Anything that might give me a clue as to what just happened. Seeing nothing leaking all over the driveway, and not seeing anything looking wrong, I started her again. Same thing! I shut her down fast.
I called for a flatbed wrecker to have her hauled in. Some three-four hours later, after got lost once or twice trying to find my place, I had her at the shop. I explained what happened and their lead mechanic said it sounded like the Bendix output drive shaft did not get out of the way after the engine kicked over. He pulled the cover off the bottom of the fly wheel, shown a flashlight up there and you could see the Bendix still stuck out. You could also see where it was scraping around the flywheel as it turned. After looking things over real well, he said it looks like the flywheel is okay but not the starter.
This was right at closing time. This morning he pulled the starter and sent it to the company they use to rebuild them and other things like fuel pumps. They said the output drive snapped right in two, and it was a fairly new one. I had the starter overhauled last year. They have to order some parts and should have it fixed by Tuesday. So it looks like the only damage that they can see so far, is a broken starter... I hope that was all. Apparently, she likes to be safe in the garage! I hope she gets over that because she is supposed to go to her second show next Saturday! Better to have happened in my driveway, I guess, than on the road.
I called for a flatbed wrecker to have her hauled in. Some three-four hours later, after got lost once or twice trying to find my place, I had her at the shop. I explained what happened and their lead mechanic said it sounded like the Bendix output drive shaft did not get out of the way after the engine kicked over. He pulled the cover off the bottom of the fly wheel, shown a flashlight up there and you could see the Bendix still stuck out. You could also see where it was scraping around the flywheel as it turned. After looking things over real well, he said it looks like the flywheel is okay but not the starter.
This was right at closing time. This morning he pulled the starter and sent it to the company they use to rebuild them and other things like fuel pumps. They said the output drive snapped right in two, and it was a fairly new one. I had the starter overhauled last year. They have to order some parts and should have it fixed by Tuesday. So it looks like the only damage that they can see so far, is a broken starter... I hope that was all. Apparently, she likes to be safe in the garage! I hope she gets over that because she is supposed to go to her second show next Saturday! Better to have happened in my driveway, I guess, than on the road.
No, I don't think they will let anyone near that car except the owner, and the lead mechanics anymore! Yesterday, when they had to push her into the bay to check her out, they put on rubber gloves or grabbed big towels to put over the paint or chrome before they started pushing her. The shop manager put on rubber gloves to get behind the wheel to steer her in. Of course, she has her work seat covers in place while she is there.
Ray you are correct it's better to have it happen in the driveway than on the open road. I have made a point of always parking our cars on a flat surface, as they 
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