Sorry, but which connections should I look at? The S wire goes to the ignition switch, right? So the S wire is feeding power to the S terminal or vice-versa?

 

right. If you have an auto trans., it will go thru the ign to the neutral switch to to sol. I believe the wire color stays the same all the way though. If you don't have auto, disreguard the neutral switch.

 

Yeah I have a manual transmission.

So if there is something wrong with this S terminal wire, where do I start? It seems like everything under the dash is really inaccessible and hard to reach.

 

You should just need to access the ignition switch, which shouldn't be real hard. You may have to lay across the seats aand put your head under the dash though. You are looking for the same color wire that is on the relay.(sol)

Once you find the wire, you want to verify that you have 12v leaving the switch.

 

Alright, so I jumped the car to start it again (using the screwdriver method) and it made some horrible noises (I thought it was just the oil attempting to flow to the rocker arms since the upper end was just rebuilt). However, I let it run for about a minute and then started seeing smoke rise from around the exhaust manifold flange. I looked closer and it looked like the paint on the front of the starter was beginning to liquify, so I touched it with a pair of leather gloves and it must have been so hot that some of the leather came off on the starter.

So once I realized this, we immediately shut it off and a hum continued for a second after we killed it (the starter motor still spinning?)

So almost surely the starter is bad if not just from being burnt up from getting so hot. But what could cause it to continue to rotate after starting?




Some background:
This whole car project started back in June. We decided to clean the engine bay, using Engine Brite and then hosing it with water. After doing this, we started the engine and noticed the same smoke and smell that we are getting from the starter now. However, we thought this was exhaust leaking from a crack in the manifold, so we replaced the manifold but broke a few bolts in the process, thus we just ended up getting the whole head rebuilt with a new exhaust manifold. The engine is finally back together and we have started it and we are getting that same smoke and smell. But now we see its coming from the same place as before - the front of the starter.

 

Your description sounds like the pinion gear on the starter isn't disengaging. If the solenoid is bad, it won't pop out once the motor turns over. That might explain the burnt starter.

I had a pinion gear break once and damage the flex plate enough that it had to be replaced. Test your starter.

CP

 

Okay so Canary my problem is almost the same as yours. My starter did the EXACT same thing. It started to smoke after about 1 min. I pulled the starter and I am not sure if this was a bad thing but I turned the ignition while the starter was on the floor. The starter spun and kept spinning. So I shut it off. Now the starter will not even start anymore ha. I checked with my volt meter and I got all the correct readings from the solenoid area. Does this mean that my starter is shot now? Maybe replace the starter and the solenoid?
edit - I got the starter to turn again. I think maybe the problem would be something is to stiff that its not turning properly. Could that be the source of our issue? I will wait for Canary's next report to see what he has come up with as well.

 

Alright, I have an update also :\

Today I took off the old starter and went to go get a new one. I also got a new voltage regulator because I wanted the original appearance "concours" look anyways.

I installed both of these parts and bam! it started with the ignition switch! I didn't have to jump it. But it sounded horrible, like the starter was still spinning so I shut off the key. But the starter kept going, rotating the engine, so I disconnected the negative battery terminal and it stopped.

NOW I am believing that it is either my ignition switch or my starter solenoid that I just replaced yesterday.......... And now the problem is that my ignition switch won't turn to accessory in order to remove the lock cylinder (but that's another thread).

Now I am scared to start the car, so I'll see if I can get this switch replaced or not.

 

Finally got the lock cylinder picked and the ignition switch replaced, so I'll try to get a new lock cylinder tomorrow and see if that fixes my problem.

 

Still interested. Will check tomorrow to see if you got any progress.