What an amazing day yesterday was.
 

The temperatures were great, it was a little overcast, and it was definitely cruising weather. I had to go drop off my last bit of work off at Mercer, so decided to take the Chevelle since it was so nice out. Thats where the headache started. It started right up first try, walked into the garage to close the door and let the car warm up a little. I get the door closed, lock up the truck and all of a sudden the Chevelle starts making all kinds of banging and clanging metal on metal sounds. I get over to it and like any real car guy, I decide to see if the clanging and banging continues with more RPMs, which it didnt. This noise sounds metal on metal, and almost like a bad rod knock. Check the oil pressure, and im getting 60 PSI at idle. Well the noises stopped, and the thing ran great. Went to get gas, went to mercer, and the thing was running amazingly. I go hand in my papers and come back to the car, turn the key and *click, click* the starter is not turning over. After about ten minutes of a dead starter, tapping it with a wrench, it finally turned over. Got the car back to the house, after a rather spirited drive, and put it away till its time for the trans swap. I cant win, I thought it was going to be a nice drive today, probably the last one with the TH350 in it, and then the swap would be relatively easy. Now those knocking noises have me worried, so that may have to be taken care of before I purchase the clutch, and now another starter. This will be starter number four for this car :lol: sorry guys and gals, I just had to vent a little. Any Idea where I should start with this knocking noise? I popped the hood and there was not any metal hitting or vibrating on some other metal piece, like headers, or other exhaust components. :shrug: any Ideas?

On a brighter side, I have all winter break to make a little bit of money and get this thing ready for the spring time, as long as nothing major happens with that motor.

Kinda hard to diagnose sounds over the interweb, but could it have been the trans?

- Justin

I could only hope so, but I really doubt it.

When you revved the motor up, did the noise stay constant or go away?

- Justin

think it stopped.

No, I heard it sitting at my desk at work, like a disturbance in the force. Sounded like a loose nut behind the wheel.

Maybe the starter was binding up and that was causing your metal on metal sound....plus heating up the starter causing your no start condition?

That's what I thought after I read the rest of the story. Me thinks the gear on the starter stayed out, and was banging against the flywheel. Doesn't really matter anyway, since you'll have to pull that flexplate off to put on a flywheel soon. :) Just change the starter while you're in there.

If that is what it is, my guess is he will see the damage when he pulls it apart.

gotta do a 4speed swap so Ill see whats going on.