I thought I'd share this as it's been giving me a head ache for years and I just figured out why. Since many of us put in different engines and transmissions from different donors I thought it be a life savor to know if you didn't.

Starters for an automatic transmission are not the same as one for a manual one. The gear sticks out about 1/2" more and though it will work and bolt on, it can never disengage. This leads to burning the starter quickly, and in my case starting the thing on fire, lol.

Thankfully I was in my garage when it happened. Seems obvious but I bought the car with the PO having swapped out the engine to it. I thought it was just how the car was, sounding a lot like transmission whine, since I had bought it that way and it was my first vintage car. So whenever it would go out I would just replace it with what was in it, till this time when I was looking online for someone who "didn't make such a useless starter that only lasted a little bit" and found out that there is a difference.


Just thought I would share as it's one of those things that's very helpful to know but not something you ever hear about. I personally would not have thought if I put an engine from an automatic set up in front of a manual one that I would also need to change out the starter, especially if it worked and fit perfectly. So hopefully this will help avoid some head aches.

 

How bad was the fire? Just the starter?

 

Not bad, just burned up some wiring in it, but it didn't go past the starter. Nothing quite gets your heart going as opening the hood and seeing smoke though. Thankfully it clicked like I had cleared the battery, I was checking it out to see if the solenoid needed a tap.