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Lately the starter on the car has been just spinning a lot of the times when I trying to start the car the without engaging the flywheel. Then more recently it started to make a repetitive clunking noise on those times when it did engage the flywheel. . So I figured that I would remove the starter to examine it. I disconnected the heavy cable, unscrewed the bolt on the flywheel housing and tried pulling the starter out. While the nose of the starter is very snug in the housing I was able to pull it out about an inch at which point it became unable to move it using moderate force.

Am I correct in assuming that everything I've done so far and that I just need to use more force to get the S.O.B. out?

Yup, probably just some corrosion products between the aluminum and cast iron. Try some of your favorite snake oil, and perhaps even a plumber's strap wrench around the starter body to induce a little rotation to free it up.

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Dave,

Thanks for the info. I used some WD40 and a strap wrench for rotating so I could push it back in, but I wanted to check before I got heavy handed about removing it.

OUCH - Clunk Clunk = bad Bendix spring. I'm guessing that I'll need to repair it as I'm too old to push start it. Good news is that all the teeth are OK.

Push it? Have you ever tried to crank it? I tried once, barely able to turn the engine over; useful for static setting of timing, valve adjusting, but I've not the muscle to use it for starting.

Bendix springs are available, seems it was just a few months ago we went thru the sourcing - you might try a search.

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Was it this thread?

I was the only kid in jr high school with my own car, a 1937 Chevrolet that rarely started electrically. I would crank it so that my mother could drive me to school but I can't imagine trying to crank a Packard!

My "push it" comment to start the car was what my wife would refer to as my dry, but dumb sense of English humor that I must have inherited from my mother& grandfather.

I had a spare starter in storage. I've pulled the spring from it and will install it in the pretty rebuilt one that failed that was in the car.

Upon examining the failed rebuilt starter, the problem probably occurred because there were different size shoulder bolts that were used on the clutch assembly (3/8" & 5/16") that are used on the spring. On the spare starter, both bolts were 3/8" and the spring looks like it was designed for 3/8". I'm guessing that the spring was able to slip off of the 5/16" which caused it to get mangled.

I'll be getting another Bendix spring for the spare starter.

I'd guess that undersized shoulder bolts for the Bendix spring would result in the stresses being more narrowly distributed and hence the spring breakage.

Dave,

I think your comment is correct I'm certain that the undersized bolt led to the failure. While I said the spring broke, in reality it turned out to be severely bent (see picture). I think it slipped off of the bolt. This lead to the initial symptom of the starter just spinning and not engaging. On one of the try to start the car the end of the spring snagged on the bolt and got bent even more. The now led to the spinning with a clunking noise.

To solve my problem, I removed the entire Bendix drive from the old starter and cleaned up. It is now installed in the starter, the starter is installed and works great.

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