Bought an LS/VTEC del sol with a blown MANUAL tranny. Prior to transmission removal, engine started fine. After tranny was replaced the car would not start anymore.

Here are some facts:
- Battery is fine. Charged it fully and also tried turning on the car with a booster pack.
- Car has no alarm and no kill switches
- Starter fails to crank the engine
- Starter spins and makes whining noise, but does not seem to engage the flywheel. This happens when the key is used, and also when i connect a jumper wire from the battery positive terminal to the starter solenoid terminal.
- After removing the starter and starting it directly from the battery, the shaft pops out and spins and makes the same kind of whining noise.
- Flywheel does not appear to be jammed at all. I can turn the engine over via the crankshaft pulley and it seems to move without problems.
- All flywheel teeth are ok
- All of the teeth on the starter shaft are good.

Here's a video of the starter and the noise it makes:
http://www.vticapital.com/starter-problem.mp4

Another important piece of info i think is that during transmission removal, i removed two long bolts from the starter and separated starter from starter motor. When I was assembling everything back together i found the following roller near a starter. I'm not sure if it's part of the starter assembly or if it fell out of the broken transmission.. but maybe this is what's causing the problem with the starter bendix.



Does anyone have any idea of what it can be?


Modified by Menatep at 12:43 PM 2/13/2007


Modified by Menatep at 12:43 PM 2/13/2007


Modified by Menatep at 1:01 AM 2/24/2007

 

auto or manual?

 

check your ground wires.
try a new starter.

 

Manual transmission. all the ground wires work.

 

never pulled a starter apart but it possibly looks like a spacer that goes inside the start, b4 you installed the starter back on did anything make a noise because that may just be the issue and your starter cannot ingage properly

 

I dont know but that piece doesnt seem to appear a starter.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Projekt_2nr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">never pulled a starter apart but it possibly looks like a spacer that goes inside the start, b4 you installed the starter back on did anything make a noise because that may just be the issue and your starter cannot ingage properly</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

that looks like it might have been a piece from a bearing... did the starter drop at all?

 

no the starter did not drop. i'm still trying to see where that part goes but i can't seem to find anything missing in the starter itself after taking it apart.

 

i think that toher piece is from a bearing in the old tranny... also since the starter is out take it to a parts store and have them test it for you. or push start the car then hit the starter switch while car is running, really quick though. u said the starter jumps out right? (i mean the gear has to jump like out of the starter and start spinning if u jump it while its not in the car)so hit the switch when the car is running and if it doesn't make that horrid sound, you might have forgot something or put something in backwards with the clutch/flywheel install. (you'll most likely know about that wwhile ur trying to push start the car)

 

The starter sounds fine, unless its not extending all the way. Did you use the same flywheel? if it was replaced with the wrong one that could be a problem. or that little peice is a spacer for the starter.

The problem is that the starter isn't engaging with the fly wheel, Not his wiring or battery.

 

bump

 

from the sound of the video the starter spins alright. could be a plunger that's gone bad or the armature's not strong enought to spin the crank. best think to do is get a new starter

 

Looks like a watch battery. Borrow a starter from a buddy or get yours checked at the local car parts store. Good Luck.

 

i'll try to get a new starter this week and hopefully everything will be allright. don't really want to remove the tranny again.

 

Just an update... I fixed my problem.

It turns out not all B series starters are the same. 99-00 CIVIC SIR (DOHC VTEC) starter (the one that used to be on the car), is not the same as 94-01 INTEGRA B18B starter.

I used to have a B16A transmission, but i put an LS tranny and the civic SIR starter fit but it could not crank the engine. The Integra starter worked perfectly fine.

I know the choice of transmission is not the best one, but it's all i could find on such short notice. I'll swap a B16A or B18C tranny later on if the car drives crappy.