Today I was going to take My ’55 Chevy Bel Air out for a drive. But before doing so, I wanted to replace the grinding High Torque starter that was turning the engine over.
So, since I know the engine came out of a 1980 Camaro, I felt confident I would make the right choice at the auto parts store. I drove over and when they looked up the starter they brought one out (which naturally was a bit larger) but the bolt holes were staggered instead of in line with each other. I didn’t think this was right, so I drove home, removed the old starter and looked, sure enough, there were holes for staggered as well as in line ones.
Back to the store I went. But there again, I looked at the started and for some reason it didn’t look right. I got it anyway and brought it home. I climbed back under the car and attempted to squeeze the starter up. No go! I had to remove one of the headers to make the install a bit easier. Now that that was out of the way, the starter slid right up under the engine. I go to bolt it up and damn! I did not even think that the larger starter may need longer bolts. Off the the auto parts store again.
This time, they had packaged bolts there, but only ONE! I went to three different stores before I decided that NAPA should have been the first stop. I got the bolts, went home and got the starter in no problems. the previous issues I had before came from looking at everything upside down and backwards. It sucks getting all confused like that.
Everything was bolted back up and (cross your fingers) here comes the turn of the key. It worked! No more grinding. But now a new noise. Apparently one of the header gaskets is leaking.
Well, I’ve done enough for today. I’ll save the gasket fun for another day soon….