Hi everyone, I am at my whits end with a problem I am having with my mustang, I will make a long story short, I have a 66 stang with a 289 and a C4 tranny. I swapped the tranny yesterday and put a rebuilt 67 C4 in my car, today after I got done with everything I went to start the car, and I heard a grinding noise come from the bellhousing area about 1 or 2 seconds after the car started. So naturally I thought it was the bendix on the starter getting hung up on the flywheel. I pulled the inspection plate off the bell housing and looked at the ring gear, all seemed well, so I discinnected the coil wire and craked the car from the solenoid and I could hear a slight bump bump bumping noise that kept up with the engine rotation. So I said Oh sh*t now what?? So I checked to make sure everything was good with the torque converter, everything was, so I stuck my finger into the bottom of the bell housing and there was metal fillings everywhere, I then pulled the starter and they were around the gear on the bendix and that look a little ground up, so I figured I would try another starter, so my friend gave a me a starter he had in his 67 stang before he converted to manual tranny (a known good starter). I went home and attempted to put it in and I come to find out that starter wouldnt bolt up, the bolt pattern and diameter of the starter (where it fits into the intermediate plate) was good, but the actuall length of the starter shaft was shorter by a half inch, so the tip of the starter was hitting the flywheel and not allowing me to seat it in the bell housing so I could bolt it up. To my knowledge, I only know of 2 different type starter for Ford small blocks (old ones), auto tranny and manual tranny, and I think that you can't even fit a manual starter into the spacer plate of an auto tranny car. My question is, has anyone ever ran into the kind of trouble I am having? Does anyone have any ideas?? Also keep in mind, the car was a running driving numbers matching car when I put it on jackstands on thurday, the intermediate plate was not changed nor was the flywheel, just the tranny and torque convertor, I checked to make sure the bell housing was the same and it is. I think I am going to go and buy a starter for a 66 mustang 289 with auto tranny and compare the starters, I am thinking that I had a bad starter in the begining but I don't understand how it could just "happen" by itself. Ok, I will stop my rambling, I have had it!! with this car and I am outta ideas, so if anyone could help, that would be great!!!

Thanks, Jack

 

UPDATE, I changed the starter with the correct replacement and the bumping noise is still there, so that pretty much rules out the starter, so after I eat dinner I am going to take the torque converter nuts off and try to back the converter away from the flywheel to see if it will spin, if it does spin I am going to see how many plugs are on the converter, I just know of one, and it is in the correct spot, but I am thinking there might be another and it may be under one of the weights on the flywheel or just plain old not lined up??? I will have to see, anyway, if anybody has any ideas, I am open to some advice!!

Jack

 

Check to see if the drain plug is covered by the flexplate.
Jim

 

Well, it was what I was suspecting, there was a drain plug hidden behind one of the weights on the flexplate, I unfortunally couldnt get the converter to spin so I backed off all the bellhousing bolts and some other stuff and slid the tranny back about a half inch in hopes of the converter being freed up a little but I finally gave up after more than 12 hours of working on it, so tomorrow I will get back on it and see what happens. Jack

 

For what its worth,ive got a bumping noise too but mine is caused by a missing tooth on the flywheel.Before I found out what it was,it scared the crap out of me because it was happening on a brand new engine.