Help Needed

[Stugdum]

Last week I posted about a horrible scraping noise that was coming from the bell housing area, well today I took the cover off (that was a job in itself, who was the Einstein that designed an inspection plate that necessitates removing the steering rack and part of the exhaust just to get it off and have a look ?)Anyway, I inspected the flexplate and torque converter area, and everything seemed kocher, no cracks in the flexplate, no loose bolts and no signs of anything scraping in that area, so can anyone give me some more ideas of what to check. It is definitely an extremely loud scraping sound that is there all the time no matter what gear you are in or whether you are idling or driving. It increases with the revs of the engine, and is definitely coming from the bellhousing area, as I checked it all with a stethoscope. I even took off the fanbelt and started it just for a few seconds just to rule out any of the pulleys or anything at the front of the motor, and the noise was still there, no change. I cant think of what else it might be. The transmission is only 18 months old and seems to be running fine. This is driving me nuts.

stugdum

[Kingo]

check your starter is not getting stuck, start it with the cover off and have a look (carefully) under there, the starter should not be engaged on the ring gear (flexplate), if it is it will be making one hell of a racket.
I've had a similar problem in the past, where part of the plastic planetary gear inside the starter had broken off not allowing the starter to disengage properly, so it had the combined effect of making a racket as the starter was spinning on the ring gear and making crunching noises as the plastic parts were floating around in the starter getting all mashed up.

[hako]

Try to move the TQ backwards and forwards (to front and back) using a lever or long screwdriver - sometimes the main bearing thrust washers wear so much they allow the crank to move backwards and forewards and this moves the TQ which rubs inside the bellhousing.....the scrape marks should be visible on the TQ body so inspect closely. I find that I can detect things like this better at night in darkness using a torch.

[Stugdum]

Thanks for the help guys, I finally tracked it down. My starter motor gear was not pulling back far enough into the housing and staying just engaged by about 1mm or so, just enough to make a hell of a racket.