Evening Listers,
Well I thought I had the ringing sound that seemed to be coming from the
gearbox this summer licked. The gearbox needed attention anyway, what
with ring syncs gone and some rough shifting, so a complete rebuild
happened. There were some loose parts rolling around inside from the
shifting lever, so it seemed like that could have been the cure. Only
drove it about 10 miles following the rebuild, didn't notice the ringing
sound, then put it in the garage for some other projects, including
adding a heater, and it sat for about four or five months.
This week, winter temps in the 70's got me in the mood to put it back on
the road, plus I finally got the heater installed, just in case. It
started up okay, seemed to run all right, and not more than half a mile
from the house, here comes the ringing sound again. Before the gearbox
rebuild, I thought the ringing noise came only when the car was under
way, and usually started up when I made a right hand turn. This time it
started shortly after a left hand turn, and continued pretty much the
rest of of the way home. This evening, I started it up in the garage,
and there was the noise again at idle. I tried to locate it in the
garage with the hood up, but couldn't really isolate it except that it
was more noticeable from the front of the car than from the rear. I did
notice that when I shut the engine off, the ringing continued for just a
second as the engine came to rest.
It sounds as though something is spinning loosely on a shaft that should
not be spinning, or it could be very light contact between a rotating
part and a part that is fixed in place. At one point I thought it might
be the starter not fully dis-engaging from the ring gear on the
flywheel, but I have replaced the starter, and when the gearbox was
out, we checked the ring gear closely for unusual wear, and found none.
Any ideas? Motor has been rebuilt within last 50 miles, gearbox within
last 10 miles, starter is new, less than 20 miles on it, water pump
newly installed (although the water pump is probably 10 years old; came
with the car in a new box) generator rebuilt less than 50 miles ago, and
adjusted by the rebuilder less than 10 miles ago due to misplaced
circlip or something. All rebuilds since June of this past year.
Since it is well past Christmas, I am no longer enamored with the "Bells
are Ringing" time of the season.
Any advice or ideas short of running it down a boat ramp to the great
depths would be appreciated.
Thanks
M. W. Jordan, Jr.
Marietta (with another 70 degree winter day predicted for tomorrow), GA
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