I think this car is HAMB friendly enough to post a question... 65 Falcon, completely original with a 200 six and automatic trans. Belongs to a friend. Yesterday he was out for a drive with his kid and stopped to shoot the breeze on his way home. When he went to leave he started the car and the starter made a pretty bad noise, like it kicked back hard - shut it right off & tried to restart. Nothing - starter seemed locked up. He walked home, I pulled the starter. It's toast. Chunks of it literally falling on the ground and mangled metal wrapped around the gear. So tonight he brings over a new one, we throw it in. Car starts right up but now has a really bad knocking coming from the starter area. Not a whine or high pitched sound like a stuck starter, but a low & loud knock. We pulled it back off and added some washers to space it away from the bellhousing (didn't have the right shims), but no difference. I assume when the old starter died a violent death that it may have damaged or bent the ring gear, and now something is hitting somewhere, causing the knock (it almost sounds like a rod knock) Before we start to pull the transmission, I thought I'd ask if anyone else has been down this road and if so, what did you find?
These have a ring gear on the converter, just 6 months ago I pulled apart my 66 Mustang 6 and C4. If damaged might be a new converter also. If it's the earlier pre C4 gearbox then the above will not apply.
Pull the starter and turn the engine to see what's up. Maybe just a piece of shrapnel lodged in a tooth.
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