# Replacing motor



## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

The torque convertor splines aren't lined up properly. Your jamming the shaft in the trans. 

The torque convertor goes in to the trans. NOT the flywheel. 

Get the torque lined up on the trans shaft and slid in all the way. With one of the bolt holes at the bottom. Then put the motor in and bolt her up. Take a BIG screwdriver, put it on engine somewhere so you can pry and move the flywheel around. Get a hole lined up to torque and put bolt in all the way. DON'T TIGHTEN. Then move flywheel around and put rest of bolts in torque. When you get to the last bolt. LOCTITE threads and bolt up. With torque lbs. Rotate flywheel to next bolt. Pull it back out. LOCTITE and install to torque spec. Do each bolt with loctite and torque. 

I don't remember which color loctite to use. It could be red, green, or blue. I wanna say green.

Next time you do an engine swap. UNDO the bolts for the torque. And leave the torque in trans.  You're never going to get the engine mounted with the torque mounted to the flywheel. YOu'll bust things up. 

And I"m going to go out on a limb here and say I'm guessing you drained the oil out of the torque. You'll need to fill the torque up before putting it back in to the trans. Otherwise your trans may not work. I could be wrong though. With today's newer cars. But don't take chances. If the torque don't have fluid in it. The transmission won't engage gears and you have a running non moving car. And make sure your trans level is full when your done and ready to test drive.


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## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

The splines are so fine on the input shaft that the odds of success are less than poor.
I've played around for half an hour just trying to find the sweet spot with the converter in my hands.

Pull the trans and seat the converter.....If you keep pressing it with the bolts (trans to block) you will (hopefully haven't) fracture the front pump of the trans.

Rob


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

Don't know about trans's today. 

Back in the day. You slid the torque on and rotated till it hit the sweet spot to slide completely on. Which was another 1/2 inch or so. So just be aware of that. Don't just slide it on thinking it's on. It needs to be completely up against the wall.


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## GSTboy (May 10, 2018)

Ok so I unbolted it all got the torque converter all the way in. Everything is bolted up and everything spins now. But when I go to start the car I just get a loud click from the starter and nothing happens. Then a couple seconds later it clicks again. The battery is hooked up to a tender and holds 12v when I try to start it. I pulled the starter and bench tested it and it works fine. And as far as I can tell there's only 2 wires that hook to the starter and a ground wire that hooks to one of the bolts that bolts it to the trans.


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## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

The car has 'tip start'. You don't have to hold the key in the crank position for continued starter operation. You just 'flick' (for lack of a better term) it and the starter will crank for five seconds or so or stop the moment the engine starts.
So, you are hearing solenoid engagement, with no starter motor action, and then you are hearing solenoid disengagement (timeout).

Rather than tear your hair out too long, try jumper cables from a running car.......starter needs lots of amps (like 150 or more) to spin the engine. A highly sulfated battery will show 12 plus volts but have very low available ampherage.

Rob


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

In GM starters, the solenoid is also the starter relay. By that, I mean the relay that actually powers the starter motor. It sounds to me like the starter motor itself isn't getting power for some reason. It's pretty common for the contacts in the solenoid to fail in GM starters. Or, it might be you don't have the heavy duty battery power cabled connected. Then again the solenoid/starter assembly may not be installed properly to allow the solenoid to fully connect the starter to the flywheel. That can cause the contacts to not connect.


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## GSTboy (May 10, 2018)

I have every cable I can see hooked up. Are there more than just the 2? Theres a little one that connects to the little stud on the solenoid with the 10mm nut. Then there's a big one that's protrudes from the harness and that's connected to the bigger stud with the 13mm nut. So the big one would be the big power and the little one would be for ignition? Should I just spend the money and and replace the starter? I hate throwing parts At it but I'm at a lost. I have tried the jumper cable tactic.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

Sounds like his solenoid is working. Just not the starter. 

Make sure both battery cables are connected on both ends. + and -. Good and tight. 

Put volt meter on battery and see what it reads when you hit start. 

You're not getting the amperage for some reason.


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## GSTboy (May 10, 2018)

Does the motor need to go through a relearn process? Like buy a obd2 plug in and relearn all the sensors?


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## GSTboy (May 10, 2018)

The volts drop to 11.8 while trying to start it.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

How many little terminals are on the starter motor. You've got ignition. Is there another one labeled something else?


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

Check the voltage on the big cable. The starter fuse may have opened. The fuse looks like a metal strap and it's located under the cover by the positive post of the battery. It's where the thick wire from the starter goes.


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## GSTboy (May 10, 2018)

There's 3 I the starter. On that is a ground going from the solenoid to the starter. One for the big cable and one little one for ignition. I also moved the big power wire from the starter to the fuse box to the opposite end of the fuse to bypass the fuse and I got the same click.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

OK, let's break this down into a simple circuit. The battery voltage goes from the + post, though the starter fuse, though the big cable to the solenoid. The solenoid will act as a switch. From the solenoid, it goes though a "strap" to the starter motor. After going though the starter motor, it goes though ground, to the engine, though some kind of engine ground strap, back to the negative side of the battery. (You might want to check the ground path - make sure the starter has a good connection to the engine and the engine has a good connection back to the battery.)

When that small wire that's connected to the solenoid gets connected to battery voltage, the solenoid will pull in and turn on the starter motor. That wire in turn is driven by a relay in the underhood fuse box. An old mechanic test is to take a screwdriver and short the small wire to the big wire on the back of the solenoid. Things will get a little exciting as there will be a nice spark and the engine (should) start cranking. That's also the way I'd test it on a bench. Connect the battery to the big terminal and the ground, then short the small terminal to the big one.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

GSTboy said:


> Does the motor need to go through a relearn process? Like buy a obd2 plug in and relearn all the sensors?


Maybe, but that's not going to stop it from cranking.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

The one from solenoid to starter is your power connection to teh motor itself. The ground is the starter mated to the engine. 

Take a screwdriver if you can. Or something that can make contact with the battery terminal on the starter to the ignition terminal on starter. That should make the starter work. If it don't. You've either got a bad solenoid. Or not enough amps to the solenoid. 

To confirm the ignition wire. Use a test light to make sure there's power when you hit start. Although it sounds like it's working. 

Since you say your battery measures 11.8 volts. You're not getting the amps to teh starter. Battery should drop to around 11 volts with starter cranking. 4 cylinder starters require around 100 amps or better just to get the motor cranking. About 80 amps once it's going.


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## GSTboy (May 10, 2018)

Well replaced the starter and it fixed the issue! Thanks everyone for the help!


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## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

FYI: It is a flexplate, not a flywheel. Flywheels are found on manuals.

I was also going to say that 9 out of 10 times you have a bad ground if the starter clicks and you have already determined the battery is not dead. 

Glad she's running though.


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## Chaseg Cruze (Oct 19, 2021)

I’m about to replace the engine in my 2013 Chevy Cruze LT 1.4 is there anything I should know before diving in


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