Topic: flywheel and warped dash

[kyledyr]

so i've been having starting problems.  sometimes (1/3 of the time) when I try to start up the beast, instead of a beautiful roar i get a terrible grinding noise. at first i had no idea, until my auto teacher heard it and told me "well its either a starter or a flywheel. i hope its not the flywheel."

i bought a new starter but i havent bought a new flywheel. i heard that it's incredibly difficult, and you have to pull the whole tranny to replace it.

has anyone done this? how hard of a replacement is it? should i take it to a shop and let someone else do it? what kind of an estimate would it be?


next thing: does anyone know a good way to "bend" a dash back into alignment? here's a picture of my problem:



EDIT: Picture fixed.

any tips?

[Jonnyscotti]

Your pic doesn't work.

I'm not a mechanic so I can't help you. Someone else will chime in I'm sure.

[ta78w72]

I've never had that grinding problem.  However, when I had a tranny rebuilt on a previous bird they replaced the flywheel....they're only around $80.  However, you need to pull the transmission.  If I were you, I'd pull the starter out firs and check out that gear.  Could be that's the one that's messed up.  Otherwise, you need to pull the tranny.  You're not going to like my next comment....but these transmissions only last around 70K...maybe a little more, maybe a little less....at least that's been my experience.

[steve18in78]

Pull the starter.  The starter gear is probably worn or maybe has a broken tooth or three, or the starter may have a bad Bendix.  With the starter out, you can see the flywheel for inspection.  Mark the flywheel with a Sharpie, and have someone manually turn the engine very slowly whilst thou observest the gear teeth.  To check for cracks, you will have to drop tranny.
Now for the painful and tragic news: the dash is toast.  The only cure is to send it to JustDashes there in California to be manually recovered.  It will cost $900, but it is just like brand new.  Only it will last longer.  Sorry, but there really is no other way, and there aren't any flawless dashes out there that anyone would sell, and the reason it has "warped" is the combination of sun, age, and glue/foam/vinyl failure, none of which is treatable.  And a carpet dash pad just looks like crap.