Any body ever heard of this? I think I have an L61 Ecotec Fidanza flywheel that could have possibly left the factory with the wrong ring gear on it. When I first put it in it was fine for a little while then it would "chunk" when cranking and broke some teeth off. Fidanza replaced the ring gear for free but it started chunking again and broke teeth again.
A couple mechanics seem to think the ring gear wasn't 135 teeth and therefore got banged up by the starter. If you've seen some of my other posts lately you'll know the battery, starter, flywheel ring gear, and alternator have been replaced.
Ideas?

perhaps your starter is not engaging correctly....this is your second flywheel with this problem correct??

I would not think they would put the wrong ring gear on 2 of yours, and no one else expiriences this problem......


What kind of shimmage do you have on the starter? perhaps you could space it out a tad, as the bendix might be hitting the ring gear instead of engaging in the teeth......

John Benham wrote:
What kind of shimmage do you have on the starter? perhaps you could space it out a tad, as the bendix might be hitting the ring gear instead of engaging in the teeth......

x2





My car was made with wrenches, Not chopsticks.

improperly shimmed starter (if its even possible to shim an eco starter) would be my guess as well.



JBO Stickers! Get yours today!

I have a shim kit, and have played around with different amounts of spacing but the same sounds when I turn it over. I picked up a stock flywheel from Autozone but it weighs a ton and doesn't look at all the same.

very strange indeed..

guys, keep in mind shimming the starter on the eco only pulls it parallel to the teeth.. you're not actually taking the starter away or towards the teeth. in other words, the starter mounts in a horizontal direction, not vertical.

could be a manufacture defect in the teeth.. never heard of this happening before really.

wish i had more to add =\

that being the case, i'd look to the starter being faulty. i once had to replace 3 new (not rebuilt cores, actual new) starters on my 89 in one week for a very similar problem. it would start twice, bind, then i'd have to turn the flexplate by hand to unlock it, drive to the parts store and change it in the parking lot.



JBO Stickers! Get yours today!

The starter that was on it was tested good, but I replaced it anyway. The one on it now is tested good to. It spins free and fast when tested. It really just sounds like the starter is slapping into the side of the ring gear. Don't know.

I'm replacing the Fidanza with a stock one and seeing if I can have Fidanza put a new ring gear on AGAIN. Then i might sell it and buy a Spec. Weird that I'm the only one to ever really have this problem.

Fell and hurt my back at work (check out off topic for video) and this is delayed for now.