I tried to put in a HEI vacuum advance limiter this morning and was greeted was a nasty spinning noise, seemingly inside the HEI. So I took it out, but the noise continued. I thought maybe I broke something, so I put in a spare HEI just in case. Stabbed it in at TDC and won’t fire, but I’m getting carb backfire here and there so guessing it’s ok, just got to get the timing right.

The worrying thing is when I turn the starter keyswitch and release it from the start position, the starter keeps cranking. Anyone ever seen this?

Weird that I got compound problems today.

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can offer.
Chris

 

Did you mess with the starter wiring also? Where are you picking up power for the HEI? You cannot have a spinning noise in a distributor.

The HEI that you stabbed in at TDC is probably 180* out.

 

If you didn't mess with the starter wires then yes look at the solenoid and the starter drive.

I had a starter wipe the pinion gear stop clip off the shaft and crack the aluminum nose which in turn kept the starter solenoid contact washer engaged and the pinion drive engaged on the flywheel while it was idling. Scary stuff.

You've never seen a guy run faster for trunk wrench. I think it took me 10.3 seconds to figure it out, launch my body out of the car, open trunk, road box, select said tool, open hood then yank neg cable.

My friends just stood there bewildered and the speed at which I exhibited.

 

After pulling the distributor and a noise is still there, i think I mis-diagnosed starter noise as dizzy noise since i was messing with the hei.

The rebuilt starter is a standard 2 year old rebuilt from Napa. I think tomorrow I’ll look in the flywheel cover for shavings and replace the starter. The noise was mechanical from the engine, so one candidate is the starter motor. Another is a bad keyswitch.

But replacing the Ignition switch won’t cure the mechanical noise, so I figure start with the starter motor and do the keyswitch if necessary.

I’m hoping to drop my not-old good HEI back in if these steps fix the bad noise.

Does it sound sensible to start with the starter motor and move on, if necessary to the ignition switch?

thanks
Chris

 

The starter is working, the problem seems to be an electrical issue where your getting voltage to the solenoid and activating it with the key on. Troubleshoot before replacing parts, there are 2 wires at the starter solenoid. Purple goes to the S terminal from the NSS which engages the starter when the key switch is in the start position and yellow goes to I terminal and supplies full 12v to the coil+ terminal when the key is in the start position. If those 2 wires are swapped at the starter the starter will engage whenever the key is on if yellow is being used with the HEI.

 

Eric,
Thank you, it was indeed the keyswitch.

I replaced the switch and all is well. I also replaced the plastic shell the switch connects to the keyswitch since the old one showed signs of mild melting.

It might sound weird, but the cabin actually smelled a bit wrong - especially the switch.

I'm not sure whether the mild shell melting is from the switch going bad then shorting and overheating, or if I'm overloading the switched circuits with accessories. I've seen lots of Olds harnesses with damaged keyswitch connections, so it doesn't freak me out, but it bears watching from here.

My first suspect is the 02 sensor heating elements pulling too many amps through the key switch. I believe a relay would solve this problem, right? It could also be the aftermarket stereo which is also more or less always on and has both battery & switched circuit connections.

Anyway thanks for the reminder to troubleshoot first, fix second. Great to have your help!

Chris

 

Glad you found it.