Well, you've stumbed into my territory again...
Chewed up flywheel ring gear?
I had a mystery Chevy once that did that--turned out that the smart
feller owner caught the Delco HEI centrifugal weights under the rotor.
That dis-service kinda nullifies cent. advance. Vacuum advance not
working, either!
All of a sudden, no power. Smart feller owner says "I'll fix that!" and
torques the HEI dist. about 90 degrees (yes, I'm exaggerating) . Now it
has power, but 40 or so degrees initial
advance is VERY tough on starter and flywheel. We actually figured out
the ratio. Three starters for every flywheel replaced.
Believe it or not, much Delco starter noise is caused by starter being
TOO FAR AWAY! This is tough on starter drives (they're not bendix) AND
flywheels. Only solution is another nose piece or remove metal from the
nose piece ala
"surfacing".
Another long-shot is broken starter bolts being
poorly fixed. In other words, they couldn't retrieve the broken piece
so they drilled another
hole ALMOST where it is supposed to be in the
engine block. You should be able to spot a poor repair.
Sorry to say it, but SOME situations like this are NEVER rectified,
the underlying reason never being discovered.
Are the bellhousing bolts correct and tight?
Good Luck!
Don Kenyon
ASE Certified Master Automotive Technican
L-1, CA Enhanced Smog Lic.
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