car repair advice

ok as many of ya know i have the elderly ladys that live near me there sisters. well today she came knocking and she asked if i can put in a starter.well like anyone working on a vechicle i checked if there was other reasons it wont turn over and i see flywheel is missing a tooth apears to be just one tooth so i told her about it and she said she just had it replaced a few months ago for 450 bucks.well it sure looks like the oem flywheel to me.so i belive all they did was rotate flywheel to a good area.and charged her for new flywheel.she seems to agree .ok here is my question how long will it run like it is i rotated flywheel and put starter back in and a course it started fine i started it like 10 times with no problems or odd noises. do you think she can drive it like that for a while?she is on socail security and has no money and them people rip her off. so if it has to be done ill do it but i dread takeing out trammy on my back in the grass.im a small guy so it is hard to do but ill do it to help her out but id rahter see how long it will start up with a bad flywheel tooth?

o its a 89 ford ranger with the 2.3 litter engine and if i do it i plan on doing clutch asebly to since im in there and she is rough on a clutch

she needs to go after the folks that SUPPOSEDLY replaced it.
it will strand her eventually.
and replacing the clutch while you are in it is a good idea.

dang them people are crooks man i dread doing this job i hate working on the ground specaily when there is no pavment.im looking for parts now looks like clucth . throw out bearing and throw out bearing is around 135.and flywheel is 57

Wow, Raggie I wish you were around here. I just paid Subaru $900 to replace my clutch.

dang thats high. some of them subarus are werid have a flat 4 cylinder in some if i recall

Yup, it's a "boxer" motor. Just like the one in the Porsche they claim. Here in MA., auto repair labor rates are awfully high. Wish I could have put it off until an extended visit with the folks in Vermont and had it done up there. I know I could have chopped a third of that off the price. My previous car a Toyota treated me much better this this one.

The majority if not all Subarus have flat/horizontally opposed engines. They are know for that. $900 for a clutch job does seem a bit high if it was outside a Subaru dealer but you must remember, all Subarus are all weel drive so a clutch job will be more expensive than the average car. Sorry for steering off topic.

Raggie, driving it like that will be fine, it's only when you start it is when it's risky. Everytime she starts it is playing lottery. I don't think you can really calculate the odds in this case. Just gotta hope that when the engine completely stops when turning it off that the part of the flywheel with the missing tooth doesn't stop near the starter's gear. Every time that it does and you engage the starter, there's a chance of screwing up another tooth.

well i told her if it wont start put it in gear and let it roll a bit

[ QUOTE ]
raggie33 said:
well i told her if it wont start put it in gear and let it roll a bit

[/ QUOTE ]

That would work but chances are it won't roll when it's in gear. She could always have someone help her push start it since it is a manual trans.

reggie, If the ring gear is missing/broken a few teeth. What will happen is luck of the draw. the starter will enagage fine until you hit the bad spot. don't hurt the drive teeth on your starter or you may be getting one of those too.

You also need to find out why the ring gear has broken teeth. Or it will do it again. The ring gear has some special installation instructions. The entire flywheel needs to be refrigerated, then the ring heated (expand) with a torch to remove. Installation is the reverse.

If she has alread paid for this to be done. I would get then to fixed their own jobs.

Otherwise, I would be taking pictures and seeing them in small claims court.

[ QUOTE ]
cy said:
reggie, If the ring gear is missing/broken a few teeth. What will happen is luck of the draw. the starter will enagage fine until you hit the bad spot. don't hurt the drive teeth on your starter or you may be getting one of those too.

You also need to find out why the ring gear has broken teeth. Or it will do it again. The ring gear has some special installation instructions. The entire flywheel needs to be refrigerated, then the ring heated (expand) with a torch to remove. Installation is the reverse.

If she has alread paid for this to be done. I would get then to fixed their own jobs.

Otherwise, I would be taking pictures and seeing them in small claims court.

[/ QUOTE ]
ouch can ya buy the flywheel with the ring gear on it already?i dont have a torch and that sounds very hard. far as takieng them to court it will be hard to prove they didnt replace it.i did take a pic threw started hole but it didnt come out to good

Small claims court doesn't require proof, Raggie. It only requires a preponderance of evidence.

cool ill pass it on to her.

Darkzero and Raggie
If the engine is stopped on the bad tooth and you try to turn the engine a little by rolling the truck, it will roll easiest in high gear. It only needs to turn a tiny bit to get it off that bad tooth so the starter will work.
Fester

[ QUOTE ]
raggie33 said:
ouch can ya buy the flywheel with the ring gear on it already?i dont have a torch and that sounds very hard. far as takieng them to court it will be hard to prove they didnt replace it.i did take a pic threw started hole but it didnt come out to good

[/ QUOTE ]

You should be able to salvage another flywheel w/ringgear. R&R a flywheel requires that you either remove the engine or remove the transmission from the bottem. Both jobs require a major amount of special automotive tools to do safely.

Also be sure and check the starter teeth for damage, if it got jammed against the broken teeth.

What I would be doing is calling the shop first before doing any of what you are doing. If it's a reputable shop, they will step-up and fix their work.

Oherwise this should be very easy to prove in small claims court. $450 is a fairly steep amount to charge someone without performing a major amount of work. The invoice should reflect exactly what they did.

If she paid to have the mechanic replace the ring gear and you find broken teeth. Then on the surface, this is pretty clear cut.

ive put a clutch in one before.use a floorjack to remove trany

thats cheating.
wait til you get to install a fmx(cast iron c6)without a jack
when i was young and dumb i did silly stuff like that.
got it in place put those bolts in NOW!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
[ QUOTE ]
raggie33 said:
ive put a clutch in one before.use a floorjack to remove trany

[/ QUOTE ]

lol sometimes i just put a bunch of wood blocks under engine at about same height of where trany has to go. then lean a big board on it like a rampthen put trany on ramp and raise it to a good angle and slide it in..man im glad i never had to do a cast iron trany.

one time i put in a engine with a floor jack.in a old toyota corolla it was rear wheel drive