New to me old to the world, TS - pile of problems, can we solve them?

[Virgis007]

Hello guys!

Little update with big news!

So yesterday april 10th was a good day for pontiac, the whole day I spent working on it from the mornig till the evening. Did a lot of job. The main and most complicated thing I did was the replacement of old exhaust manifold flange gaskets, because they were bad and the Ponty was real screaming. I was real anoyed, and the police once stopped me and I almost got a billd for this, but i did not get because I showed them that I was waiting for parts from the US to fix the issue, showed the policeman the gaskets and he just let me go, but said, the next time he gets me and if it will still be loud af he will bill me

So what I did on the lucky day:
Removed rear exhaust manifold (found it's first pipe from cylinder 2 was cracked off, so I weld it)

Removed all exhaust from the rear manifold to the end, and fix it, reweld it where necesary (this was not bad just a few dots actually)

Changed rear spark plugs into new ones again (with removed rear exh. manifold from the bottom was a real easy job to change than from top as did before)

Changed engine oil.

Checked and fixed the Knock sensor. Funny thing as I checked it, there was no wire at it at all... So I had quite hard time in finding it, but succeed, it was ripped off, soldered a new end and cheked with ignition on the wire as a plus. Yep thats the one, there was 4.85-4,90 V on it. So then connected to the old sensor just to check maybe it works. And yes it did, so the new knock sensor stays as a spare part for the future.

Put new gaskets and everything went back into places. Had to remove the whole throttle body, for a comfortable access to the exhaust manifold, made new gasket for the throttle body and put everything back.
Connected all spark plugs checked twice for good order. I might have messed up the order earlyer, when I checked while removing at first. Because I have about 4 spare coils and the ones for cylinders 1-4 have cylinder numbers written oposite on them!! Ones are correct, others oposite! So I checked not by them but by the scheme you guys gave.

So I installed everything back, and at the end of the day, fired up the pontiac and drove out the garage with no check engine! Smooth drive, not loud, nice sound, good power, not if feels like a normal car. Real happy about it. Some problems left, but not as that much as I had when just bought.

How do you guys put photos here? I could show how the exhaust manifold was and so on if interesting.

[Blue Bowtie]

Good news. There may have been multiple problems, and your work could have solved most of them.

Photos would need to be hostd on an external web site, and can be linked here.

[Virgis007]

Hi guys, quite a long time not seen you here.

Oh I see Jeffrv is having quite big problems with his engine, gonna read all what's up with him, hope he deals with the problems easy and fast..

So I got this one really annoying problem.

I have it quite a long time to be honest, but, as long as it sometimes stays silent, I just ignore it and go on, hoping it won't show up, but it's a real bad ass problem that shows up at the worst moment.

The problem is with my starter motor, and I am looking for ideas what could it exactly be.
The first issue is when cold, the first time to turn the ignition lock and to crank the engine the starter will spin freely. I am kinda used to this already. Always always it does it, especially after night in the morning before firing up the engine and going to work. So the first turn on the ign. lock starter spins freely (the magneto wont connect the starter motor and engine flywheel gears) ant the second time it always cranks as it should be with no problem and the engine always starts. Sometimes (really rare) if it wont startup quick the starter motor cranks the engine about five seconds and then it drops out and spins free again. And sometimes it doesn't connect about two three or four times, the starter spins free four times turning the ignition lock, and later cranks the engine okay. I know, it's a mechanical starter problem, probably the spring is broken, or there is something with the lever that the magneto pushes the gear. I'll fix this.

But another thing. Real rare thing this one, but sooo annoying. Sometimes when the engine is hot, you quickly stop the engine, or if it stalls, and right away, if you turn the ignition lock the starter motor won't do anything at all. Yep just like that. You turn the ignition lock and that's it, starter motor wont spin free, won't crank the engine, nothing at all. You can only hear the relay go clink clink when you turn the key. Darn it, yesterday I was really in a rush after work, because the parts shop that I needed to go was about to close, and while I was waiting by the traffic light for the green light my engine stalled and the starter motor did this magic.... Didn't spin at all... And I kept standing by the traffic light when it was green, I was the very first one, and there was a huge traffic with lots of cars behind me, lots of beeping, shouting "move it" "what are you asleep??" and so on.... Oh gosh that was so annoying and so embarrassing... Lucky me, about 10 minutes of standing there my two friends with motorcycles passing by saw me, and quickly helped me to push the Ponty out of the way. Thanks a lot for their help, I thought I will die there
Later my brother came over to the place I was in a parking lot and we towed my Ponty to the garage.
After towing and after some time the Ponty wouldn't start, you turn the key and nothing happens with the starter motor.. But guess what. In the morning, the next day, I came to the Ponty, and started it up as usually.. Like nothing happened. I even shut it down and fired it up again a few times, even drowe it a little bit. Cranks like usually... But, now I'm afraid to drive it, until I find out what happened back then, because you will never know where you will be and the starter motor won't spin.. I'll take the starter motor apart, and check inside it what can I do about it, but, the question is, is there some kind of an overheat protection system/elements for the starter motor or something? That could prevent the starter motor from spinning? What else could it be? I need ideas to what to check more on it, not to miss something. Maybe some relays or else...?


Another good thing. I bought a black Pontiac Trans Sport 3.8 1994 as a donor car for real cheap. Bad looking from the out side and the interior is quite a tragedy (used as a work horse, for building a house, bringing bricks cement, and so on, so imagine how it looks like, there are only front seats left..), but the engine runs so good and smooth. And the starter motor looks good, thinking about just swaping the starter motor from this donor to my daily Ponty. But what if the issue of not cracking at all is not the starter motor it self..?

[Jeffrv]

Your intermittent no crank is a symptom of the starter solenoid on the verge of outright failure. If all the connections are clean and tight, it will have to be replaced.
Spinning freely after a few seconds usually means the starter drive is also on it,s last legs, and needs to be replaced. If you do that, also clean the armature and put in new brushes, they are not expensive.
Or swap the starter out of your donor car, see if things improve.
Jeff