Thread: Gen I (1969) SBC 350 NEED HELP, TICKING SOUND

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Originally Posted by 34_40

I had one a couple weeks ago that drove me crazy trying to locate it.
Long story short, the spring that holds back the bendix in the starter had broken and the starter drive gear would just sneak out and tap on the flywheel.
The stethascope got me close and after removing the flywheel cover the noise got louder, when turning the flywheel by hand I could hear it... still took me a bit to realize it was the starter drive!

I have thought about this. with my bellhousing off, I was able to look at gap between flywheel and starter drive gear, there is a very small gap, but you can see light between it. Is this something that you were able to see without turning flywheel? or did it only expose itself when you turned? also, was this something that may only hang up right after its been cranked? but spring may work itself back into place as it sits?

Originally Posted by cgw3

I have thought about this. with my bellhousing off, I was able to look at gap between flywheel and starter drive gear, there is a very small gap, but you can see light between it. Is this something that you were able to see without turning flywheel? or did it only expose itself when you turned? also, was this something that may only hang up right after its been cranked? but spring may work itself back into place as it sits?

On mine the starter drive would slide out and the flywheel / flexplate would tap it and push it back into the starter. the running engine vibration would then shake the bendix back out until it was tapped by the flywheel again.. rinse and repeat... I only found it while turning the flywheel/flexplate by hand. And I noticed the clearance disappeared between the two gears.