427 Ring Gear, OUT!

[Excaliber]

I know this about the OLD Red. That stuff MAY have to be heated with a torch to break loose the nut/bolt in question. It seriously "locks" stuff in place!

[patrickt]

<sigh> ... as I said, "There is some debate as between red and blue."

EDIT -- or green, yellow, indigo, mauve, taupe.......

[Excaliber]

The parts came in today. Most important one was the new 184 tooth ring gear. I waited at the machine shop while they heated and pressed it onto the old flywheel (you remember, the extremely heavy old school 40 pound boat anchor flywheel).

Anyway, it occured to me that the GEAR RATIO has now changed. 152 teeth is a TALLER gear than 184 teeth. The engine won't turn over as FAST as it used to with the 152 tooth gear. It will turn slower now with the 184 tooth and thus crank over with more torque! Perhaps running 20-22 base timing won't be near as much of a problem as it was with the "high speed" 152 ring gear! Surprisingly, gear teeth mesh/match is about equal for both flywheels. I was getting a good "bite", before and now, but the starter was just struggling to spin the motor with the advanced timing and the 152 tooth.

Or, is my math hopelessly screwed up here?

[Argess]

I think you are "over-worried". Don't forget, an unloaded starter will rev to the moon. Your starter should rev to the point it is putting out max power to the load that it is capable of. So, the good news is your engine should crank at least as fast as it did before.

Now more good news, since that starter rpm will be greater with the higher tooth ring gear, the starter will be in a more effecient operating range, and the engine should actually crank faster.

But I"m not sure.....LOL. Oh well, you'll find out eventually.

EDIT: Electric motors start with max torque at zero rpms, and the torque drops linearly to zero at max rpms. During this time, HP of the motor builds to max at 1/2 of max unloaded speed. You can be sure that during cranking, the motor is not likely to achieve 1/2 max starter speed. So, the faster your starter can spin, the more power it actually puts out, and the faster your cranking speed will be.

[Excaliber]

Well that was an interesting take on the rpm/torque thing Argess. Sounds like a reasonable theory to me!

[Argess]

It's just about effecient power transfer. Sort of like those 6-speed Corvettes that supposedly have a higher top speed in 5th gear.

Gee.....just to type this stuff, I have to put on my Buddy Holly glasses with the band-aid in the middle, insert pocket protector, button up top button of my shirt (with no tie) and fasten a calculator to my belt......LOL.

Anyway, hope it works for you. You've been going through a lot with this whole starter/flywheel thing.

[Excaliber]

OK, the dirty deed is done!

WOW, I can't believe how smooth that starter sounds. It's been YEARS since I heard that, I had grown so accustomed to clackity clack bang clackity I just replaced the starter once a year.

VERY smooth sound, nice and quiet, BIG difference. Haven't tried it under lot's of advance with heat soak yet, not sure I will! I think I'll install a timing retard first and not even "go there" with my starter anymore. Smooth or not.

[GEORGE ANDERSON]

Congrats Ernie!
George & the Boys!

[Excaliber]

You know,,, George and the boys are so much fun to talk to the car should break down more often!

Thanks a bunch George, it's nice knowing you guys are only a phone call away!

[Eljaro]

Excaliber,

I also had been living with a weird sounding starter noise and thought that was ok. After adjusting the starter to the belhousing the starter sounds like any modern car: quiet and smooth.
I wonder how many cobra owners are happy with what they have while their starter is noisily munching away at their ring gear.

So I would advise anybody that if your starter noise is different from your everyday cars noise, have the pinion to ring gear play checked. It is most probably off.

[Excaliber]

That's a good point. There are so few FE's that I come across here on island I really had no way to compare the sound. So, I figured it must be "normal". Of course, you would think changing the starter every year or so would be a "clue".

Starters are $50 bucks, three bolts, I can change one blind folded now, so never worried about it "that much". Yup, the new starter is SUPER quiet. Anything more than that, you gotta a problem!