> Can someone shed some
> light on what could have caused this and how much of a problem I might have?
Not sure if any of this would apply to you, Ed, but ...
Many years ago, on a long trip, my post-50K starter drive came apart. Don't
know if the cotter pin broke or if someone left it out, but the big round nut
and spring came off the starter, rendering the starter inoperative. Since I was
a long way from home, I just kept driving, being careful to only shut the engine
off when I was parked on a hill so I could roll downhill to start it again.
Every once in awhile, there would be this clanging, banging noise from under the
car for a few seconds, then it would go away again.
After several hundred miles of this, the clanging ended with an unusually loud
bang, and then it never happened again. When I got home and pulled the starter,
I could see a ragged hole through the bellhousing, apparently where the big
spring had made it's exit. Didn't seem like it would hurt anything, so I put
another starter in and continued driving the car.
After about a year, the clutch started acting strangely, and I pulled the tranny
out to find that a crack had started from that hole, and run almost all the way
around the bellhousing just inside the flange !
YMMV
Randall
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