
seatramp
- Reaction score
- 10
- Thunderbird Year
- 1956
Has anyone seen this before? went to start my 56 after about a moth or so and had to crank it a couple times to get gas to the carb.The third time I cranked it she kicked and I heard a bang. I instantly stopped trying to crank it, went and looked to see if anything visible might have caused it but didn't see anything so I tried start it again. I could hear the starter spin up but no crank. I tried it a couple more times with the same results so i figured the bendix gear hung up or some how stripped a couple teeth on the flywheel. Tried rotating the engine by hand with the same result so I figured the only way to be sure was pull the starter motor. I was realy surprised when I saw the gear. I have seen starter gears that were worn and would not engage but this was new to me. All the teeth were gone. Not just worn or broken, completely gone. I fished around in the starter opening and found one of the teeth laying inside but that was it. I pulled the access plates off the bell housing and found the majority of the pieces in the air outlet of the bell housing (early 56 with the air cooled tranny) but still missing some. I had a friend turn the engine by hand while I checked the flywheel and it looks ok (note to self: next time mark the tooth where you start, he didn't realize he went around twice 😁). It's possible they went down on the air intake side but I can't check all the way in there because of the screen. The gap at the bottom of the bell housing is large enough for any loose teeth to drop out so I'm thinking when I replace the gear I will leave the access holes open and crank the engine with the coil unplugged to see if the missing teeth show up.
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