There are times when you do something stupid in the garage and you laugh and shrug your shoulders. There are other times when you walk over to the wall and just pound your forehead into it until you are rendered unconscious...
Steve has an all steel slant-nose cabriolet that he is rebuilding. He bought it as a roller. We found a really nice 3.2 engine 915 transaxle for it. Bought it from a mechanic down in Santa Barbara. This engine will stay complete with the Motronic electronics. Steve's done a TON of work on this car. We are pretty close to firing it up. Almost all of the wiring is done, integrating the 3.2 into this older chassis. The hard part is actually repairing all the old wiring that had been melted (monkey stereo installer...). Even put a fresh clutch into the 3.2 and installed the engine itself. Remember this point - fresh clutch...
Anyway, a couple of weekends ago, we are ready to crank the engine. No go, starter spins but doesn't turn the engine. We try every possibility, jump starter straight to the starter etc. Pull the starter for testing. It is perfect. Put it back in Sunday. No go. Steve is REAL pissed. He drives home and yanks the starter out of the spyder (known to be very good and very strong starter). Puts that in. No go. But it REALLY sounds like it is "kicking"... Steve pulls it out again and I crawl under the car.
I'm eyeballing the hole in the transaxle, I can see the ring gear - but hey, wait a minute, that's NOT a starter ring gear. I'm SURE its not a starter ring gear, the teeth aren't shaped right and they are too close together...
A 3.2 has a timing gear AND a starter ring gear, with the starter gear about an inch closer to the starter (real handy for engagement purposes - DOH). When the clutch got put on, the new clutch did not have a starter ring (they are to be reused)... It was sitting in the spare parts pile in the shed.
Oh God.... We pulled the engine Sunday, put the ring gear on and reinstalled it. Cranks perfect.
The "hairless monkey" award goes to the Lanes' this week...
angela
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