Well i hate to say it, but i think you found the source of your knock.

maybe a bolt came out, maybe the starter stayed out and didn't retract. (My best guess at this point)

The question is, will a new starter engage that drive plate or will you have to replace it

 

Dang! And I thought I was keeping up on this thread

Congrats on getting it running!! Electrical Gremlins suck to chase, I'm well aware of the pain, I often do it for a living. Feels great to finally kill them though.

Very interested in finding out what causes your diesel noise at idle, mine does as well sometimes and it's bugging me

Bummer about the starter, hopefully a new starter will be all that's needed. Hopefully it just failed to retract. It doesn't look like the flywheel was critically damaged imho. I would check upstream wiring to make sure there aren't any wires crossed to make sure it wasn't still engaged or anything, a relay or maybe the key got bumped to start or...

Maybe even leave it unhooked next time you start it up and give it a bump start, to make sure it's not going to interfere while you check out the engine

 

Is the flexplate on backwards? Is that even possible?

 

Pretty sure the starter isn't retracting all the way, think it should be flush or recessed from the housing. Check it vs the new one.

You can rotate the flexplate\engine and check its run-out and that all the teeth are "good" but probably overkill.

Pull the ignition switch from the back of the lock cylinder and clean and relube it, would prevent any sticking there that keeps the starter engaged.


The tick/clack is almost certainly the rockers or injectors. Scope the valve cover, fuel rail and along the oil pan and block for piece of mind.

 

close!

close!

close!

close!

 

You guys all had it so close, but I've found why it's making those noises. I think the starter, other than being butt ugly, works just fine, but the teeth weren't engaging. So, I had the flex plate backwards(it is possible)? I was doing some research and came across a YouTube video of something that sounded exactly like it. After watching many other videos on youtube, reading forums, and doing more research, i was finally sure of what the issue was. Armed with something to look for specifically, I went to the shop, had doomy crawl under the truck and had her look for what I suspected was the issue. A cracked flex plate or a loose torque converter bolt. She went under and confirmed the bolt was in fact loose. But not the torque converter bolts...........the flex plate bolts.....................

I had to look for myself because she had to have been wrong. I mean, those were loctited in place. Well, no, she wasn't wrong. They backed out. And now I get to pull the fracking transmission again. And I have no idea how they came out. That shouldn't be possible with blue loctite.

 

That's really a bummer! But at least you have a pretty solid reason for your troubles. You'll be an expert at pulling and putting that tranny back in too!!

 

I have never heard of those bolt loosening after torque and locktite. How can that happen, is the locktite bad, are the bolts the correct length? Time for some Red locktite.

 

Dunno how it happened. The closest thing I can tell is maybe we BOTH somehow forgot to tighten them, but I swear that I torqued them because I was worried about screwing up my dad's torque wrench.

as for now, we've got the trans almost out. The TC bolts were a little tight getting out and the motor didn't wanna turn so I had to use a cheater bar on a breaker bar to get it moving. After the last TC bolt came out the motor spun freely. The bolts weren't too bad, but we hit them with my thread restorer kit anyways. 3 of them had a slight hiccup in the threads, but the others were clean. Hopefully I have a thread restorer large enough to clean up the flywheel bolts. If not, I'm gonna overnight one from amazon.

as for now, I'm gonna try to get the trans completely out tonight before my bed time at 2am. We'll see. Stay tuned.

 

Well, that's the end of the story. Pulled the trans back and 6 bolt heads and a bent flex plate fell out. How this is possible, I don't know. Sheared all 6 bolts at the crank. So I essentially have a pile of garbage and a crank that is possibly unusable due to thread damage. Yay. Oh yea, the little cone on the end of the TC is practically sheared off as well. So, I don't know where to go from here. I'm not even angry right now. I'm just........done. I'm out of time and out of money to get this thing running. What money I had saved to get this thing smogged and registered now has to be used to get the Honda smogged and registered and new tires.

 

S-J, That is heartbreaking, but i am going to bet the crank is fine once you extract the broken bolts, chase the threads. I would then get another flex plate, mount it with new bolts and run it without the TC or trans in place to see that it runs true.(no runout) before putting the trans back in.

I used to have a Honda that would break the crank pulley bolt and throw the pulley off, once in the middle of the Bay Bridge in SF. I would extract the bolt and put a new one in and it would be good for a while, then loosen/break/throw again. I didn't have much in the way of tools or resources at the time, and didnt have the ability to torque it up to spec(like 150 ft/lbs, iirc). Once i finally brought it to a shop and let them do it, problem solved.
on the TC, can't really tell how bad off it is...Chevys dont have that connical foot. Not sure you really need it.

Somebody send Space-Junk a replacement flexplate and bolts Asap.

 

I did an eBay search, new bolts and used flex plate are under 100.

torque converter at auto zone shows around 160 new

the old bolts should come out easy enough, may need to drill and use an extractor, but at this point they have no torque on them.

i have no idea why that little cone is even there other than for centering purposes and also question it's necessity.

i looked in the manual and it calls that the torque converter hub and pilot hole. It calls for greasing it prior to install. A pilot is simply for alignment/centering. I would bet you could remove that and be ok. Just don't quote me 100%on that

 

Dafuq​...

Nevermind fixing it, what the hell caused it? Unless you're totally sure they were just loose

 

That's what I'm thinking. Hope there is no loctite on them. appears not from the photos of the bolts.

 

Certainly a setback, but probably not a total catastrophe. I'm with ehatch, if there is no bearing or bushing in the end of the crankshaft, then I doubt that nub is making any kind of contact with anything, so seems kindof pointless. It probably helps when installing so that one person can install the TC. You push it into the end of the crank and hold it with one hand while you thread a bolt in with the other. So your TC is probably ok to reuse. Get a new flex plate and bolts and you will be fine. I'd use red loctite and after you torque the bolts, check them again. The spec for a manual transmission is 80 ft-lbs on the flywheel bolts, I'd imagine same torque for the automatic, but not sure.

 

well, my dad told me today that i basically needed to stop acting like a baby and get it fixed. quit being pissed off and quit playing poor me. and hes right. hes always right, damn him. i hated that as a kid. but i can respect his resolve now and i do appreciate it. just got off the phone with the same yard i bought the wrecked flex plate from and they said they had another with all bolts and spacers for $125. My dad said that hed go pick it up tomorrow while im at work. Im gonna try to leave work early tonight to see if i can get to a harbor freight and get the biggest extractor kit they have. those m14 bolts are no joke. then , hope and pray the threads arent screwed up in the crank. im hoping that the crank is a harder metal than the bolts are. if not, i need to find the bolt size and order a thread chaser kit for it.

 

*throws popcorn away*
Fine. Whatever.


When I was in the middle of baby-having things went south in a hurry and people were suddenly very frantic all around me. One turned and remarked at how calm I was
so I asked
'what am I gonna do, run away?'

Got all my fingers crossed this will go smoothly enough for you and Doomy. Glad you're ready to fix the baby.

 

Before using the bolt extractor use a center punch, or sharpened punch to make a mark in the center of the broken bolt. Before drilling see if the bolts will turn out with a small chisel or punch and hammer. I'd bet they come out without needing the extractor.

 

Your dad is awesome, nothing like some good fatherly advice.

 

im hoping after getting that spacer plate off, there will be enough threads to grab with a pair of channel-locks. If not, then we will go extraction route. and that is fantastic advice for using a punch. otherwise you have a helluva time trying to drill straight and true.

ive been searching and searching, but i cant find what the bolt size is for those flywheel bolts. im guessing m14x1.50, but i dont know for sure. anyone got the specs on em?