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Re: If your starter...
Sorry for my utter rant, I've had a starter issue that has plagued me for the last 2 weeks. Here's what was going on:
After upgrading to 1600's and e85 my car was having a real hard time cranking --the starter sounded really labored. I figured it was an old starter at the time and replaced it with one I purchased from Scheides (thanks man). Well I bolted that one it and it worked much better, a lot more cranking power, but you could still tell something was not right. After a few days I went to start the car and it made a dreadful noise... like marbles being ripped to shreds by a BlendTec Blender (will it blend?). I immediately looked at the starter and noticed that it had broken the lower mounting ear completely off. Ugg. Not really understanding what was going on, I let enthusiasm triumph over logic and got another starter.
I bolted that starter in, and hit the key with renewed confidence. Whurr whurr --CRUNCH! Same dreadful noise, same friggin result -- lower mounting ear had been cracked off. At this point I was pissed. so I cranked on the starter, apocalyptic noise and all, until the car fired up. I ended up driving the car off and on for a week with 1 starter bolt (more out of spite than common sense). I even went to the dyno day like that (for those of you who remember the disgusting sounding starter out of the black / silver 1g).
Well yesterday afternoon, I was trying to figure out what was going on and I stumbled across a thread at a hotrod forum where a certain gentleman was breaking the nose off his starters. Apparently he was running too much timing while cranking and it was firing before TDC, causing engine kickback. As I'm sure you can imagine, if you engine starts rotating backwards while your starter is trying to rotate forward, there is going to be issues.
It was at this time I remembered when one of my friends mentioned that he though my starter would spin forward for a while then suddenly spin backwards. AH HA!
I picked up another starter last night and threw it in.
Then I adjusted my cranking spark advance from 15 degrees BTDC to 1 degree BTDC. It fired right up, absolutely effortlessly, and with no unusually noises. It's freaking amazing how much easier the car now starts when it's not trying to turn 2 turns forward, 1 turn back!
oh... this information probably only applies if you are running aftermarket engine management that can control crank advance.
Sorry for the confusion.
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"The moment money becomes your motivation, you're immediately not as good as someone who is stimulated by passion and internal will"
-Sebastian Vettel
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