What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

so my starter and a tie rod broke today

wow, never seen an end do that before:eek1: i have seen a sector shaft on a f450 stupid duty brake though. was sitting in traffic and the guy was in front of me, he went to turn around and suddenly he had no steering. i got out to give him a hand and seing that scarred the crap outta me, if he was driving that coulda killed him, me or anyone else on the road:( as for the starter, looks like it wasnt shimmed right. did you check that it was correct when you installed it? sometimes you cant hear it being off but it will be enough to tear those things up.
 
best bet would be to get a manual for the caddy the motor came out of. no telling how much it needs to be shimmed. autozone has shims cheap in the help section but you usually get them free with a new starter. also theres usually a little metal rod that comes with the starter and shims. this is how you check if it needs to be shimmed. you push it beetween the flywheel (the valley of the fluwheel teeth and the tip of the starter gear) when that slides in easy but still makes just a lilttle bit of contact to both its in the right place. heres a quick drawing from paint to illustrate what im talking about.

P.s. Dont you just love the work i did in paint?:D

untitled.JPG
 
The shaft the gear is on, 1/8th inch from the flexplate gears. I use a 1/8 allen wrench. For a SB Chevy..........Caddy????
 
haha my starter broke like that too. i just bought one at kragen and it works fine. if i'd go bakc i'd just buy one of those smaller starters for the weight factor.
 
What spacer are you talking about on the Tierod? I dont have any spacers and now you got me worried. Maybe he meant the starter spacers and got confused. Anyone?

Ira
 
79k20350 said:
best bet would be to get a manual for the caddy the motor came out of. no telling how much it needs to be shimmed. autozone has shims cheap in the help section but you usually get them free with a new starter. also theres usually a little metal rod that comes with the starter and shims. this is how you check if it needs to be shimmed. you push it beetween the flywheel (the valley of the fluwheel teeth and the tip of the starter gear) when that slides in easy but still makes just a lilttle bit of contact to both its in the right place. heres a quick drawing from paint to illustrate what im talking about.

P.s. Dont you just love the work i did in paint?:D
Click to expand...

lol it must be hard being a starving artist!
 
ok, let me try and explain the best i can.
the threaded shaft on the tierod went in the hole on the steering arm, and the hole on the pitman arm too far, therefore not allowing it to pivot or move at all. they sell tapered cone shaped spacer things that you put on your shaft to make it thicker(lol) so it doesnt go in as far, which lets it in turn have more play to move around.
this really depends on your tierod ends though. my old ones were whaped like this <> fatter in the middle which did the trick, my new ones were shaped like this /\ no bulge in the middle so when i tightened them, they went too far.
 
aim for a .030" -.040" gap for the starter gear to flextplate. and don't forget the brace.
 
Thats what Caddies used to be all about. They were heavier and more $, but some of that was not in plain sight. A late '70s chevy starter doesn't have a brace, my '79 Seville with the Olds 350R motor has a longer starter, more windings=more torque and durability. That starter is also heavier and would probably break without the brace. So I'm not familiar with the Cad 500, but I suspected a brace might be missing.:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom