Will;
If you haven't removed the starter, that is the first thing I would do.
A mechanical inspection may yield valuable and immediate insight. It is
also a very easy job as long as you remember the basic advice to
disconnect the battery terminals before doing any work on the electrical
system.
I suspect you are going to see something peculiar with the starter
drive on the end of the motor shaft that would explain the clunking.
Also take a flashlight and careful examine the opening the starter goes
into.
Regards
Howard
PS - My '84 Charger starter took me across a 4 lane intersection, down
500' to the entrance of the mall, up a small incline, past the bank, to
the gas station and still left me enough battery to start the car after
I filled it up. Not recommended but handy. Oh, and that is with a 17
year old starter with 145,000 miles on it.
Will Slater wrote:
>
> Thanks for the insights. I had not realized a starter could propel a car. It
> truly seems peculiar that heat of the engine would be the source of the
> problem since it is not near the exhaust. I wonder if the clanking sound as
> it starts is an indication of a related starter problem or something else.
> The clanking happens virtually every time I start it. A friend speculated
> that the clanking might be the flywheel. Another speculated that it might be
> carbon build up might be the cause of the hot start problem coupled with a
> weakened starter.
> I think Doug's comment
> " I think the gear reduction is expensive overkill, and would tend to be
> bought by people who are using the "replace parts until it starts working
> better" approach to auto maintenance.' points to a sound approach to auto
> repair. I don't want to unnecessarily replace parts and would like to find
> that actual problem and resolve it rather than simply treat the symptoms. My
> knowledge of engines is admittedly pretty scant and so makes diagnosis
> particularly difficult. So, I am wondering where to go from here. Are their
> tests I could/should make to get at the actual source of the problem?
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