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3 starters, 3 broken nose cones. A friend of mine is going through that issue right now. I can't figure out what the hell is going on with it. The flex plate is 162 tooth, the starters have been 162 tooth. The gears seem to be messing just fine with all 3 of the starters as they all worked great for a few starts of the engine. After that, crash bang, broken nose cone.
Any ideas?
oh yea, block #361959, same block as mine. I'm here at his house now, gonna try my old starter.
Do not use the starters with the aluminum nose cones. Get a truck starter that has a cast iron nose cone. Much much stronger.
A stupid question but are you using the proper knurled starter bolts?Is there excessive crankshaft end play?Is the engine high compression.I have never seen a chevy gas engine blow the nose off the starter.There must be something wrong.
Is there a way to control the throw of the solenoid? Can you limit the travel of the solenoid to keep the bendix gear from bottoming out on the nosecone?
Too much base (spark) timing? If you have 14+ degrees of advance in the distributor the motor may be kicking back on start up, when warmed up. I've had no trouble starting 10 to 1 blown alcohol motors (at temps) with an old style high torque GM starter, one battery and 'single O' cables. So a play boat should have no problems with starters. Guys back in the 70's and 80's had "starter problems" with Olds motors, same deal. Too much base timing.
I had the same problem, broke 3 alluminun nose cones.I have a big inch high compression deal.I am currently running a Hytachi mini, built to handle the set up with no problems so far
I finally figured it out. Marty, you're kind of track and now that I'm back at home, I can give a little history on the chain of events. The boat was swamped back on Memorial Day weekend, water a foot above the carbs.
The engine had the water sit in it for a day or so before the owner gave me a call to tell what happened. I told him to bring it over immediately so we could get the water out of it. After 3 oil changes and then running it for a few minutes, the water was pretty much gone. The engine was running but had a pretty rough idle, I figured it was dirt in the carbs and some water in the gas tanks.
He cleaned the carbs out good and said he drained the tanks and got all the water out, added new gas but it wouldn't start. He then said the starter was making some really bad noises before it just quit....broken starter #1.
He then changed out the starter with a mini high torque and brought the boat over here so I could check it out. The engine turned over and ran but was still rough. I checked the intake bolts and 5 of them were barely finger tight. I then suggested he get rid of the tunnel ram as it was doing no good with the log exhaust. He agreed so we put my old set up on it. Fired it up and it ran ok but still not great. He took it home to change wires/ plugs/ cap and rotor. After he got it all "tuned up", he called and said it wouldn't run and noticed it had 14lbs of fuel pressure and the starter was making funny noises again....starter #2.
He changed that out with another mini high torque last night and said it was good to go. He also changed out the fuel pump with a Holley 7psi mechanical. He asked if I would come over tonight to double check the timing cuz the motor just didn't sound too good. He called back 15 minutes later saying the starter gave out again.....starter #3. I brought over my trusty spare that has been in at least 5 vehicles since 1985 and had him change it out while I static timed it at 12ยบ btdc. All was good, fired right off, sounded good and then nothing. I went through all that I could think off and nothing worked. Just before I left, I suggested we pull the fuel line and just double check how the fuel pump was pumping. Big surprise when it pumped out 3 1/2 inches of liquid of which 3 inches of it was water.
Apparently what was happening was the engine would try to kick over but was kicking back thus causing the breakage.
Shame on me for not double checking the fuel tanks before double and triple checking everything else