I recently purchased this "barn find" 65 Dodge Coronet 440. It actually has a factory HP 1969 440 engine that has been built for performance. It took me almost two weeks now to get it running right, but now I am hearing a strange tinny very noisy rattle coming from what appears to be the center area of the engine. At first I though it was the starter bendix not disengaging, but after replacing the starter relay the noise still is there. Im not very familiar with mopar engines. I sounds like it is coming from beneath the valley pan under the intake manifold.

Is there anything under there that could have come loose and bouncing around????

 

The starter relay is not going to fix a stuck bendix. Lifters and push rods are the only thing under the valley pan. Does the noise stay there from start to after you drive around a bit?

 

I crawled up underneath the beast while running and verified that the starter bendix was staying engaged to the flywheel.... Decided wtf....starters are cheap enough....Ill just change it. Well, I was right about the cheap part...under 70 bucks, but what a pain in the *** to change....No way to get to it without dropping the driver side header. Easy enough...nope....Had to disconnect the steering arm and tie rods just to get enough clearance to drop the header to get to the starter. Finally get it out and off to Auto Zone (yes...they have parts for a 65 Dodge) got a new starter fought like a bitch to get it back in only to find it wouldn't fit.... Took it back out and noticed the new starter had some kind of stupid universal hook up for the battery cable. By the time I figured out I could just remove it, I had already spent 7 hours in the garage. Decided to call it a night and finish it in the morning....Gotta get this crap fixed....Crusin the Coast starts this Sunday!

 

Starting around 1961 or '62, all the Mopar starters are the same size and shape. A slant six starter will physically fit on a 426 Hemi and vice versa. The larger engine starters are heavier duty though. The starters will interchange up to sometime in the 80's. I'll bet AutoZone carries the heavier starters so they only have to carry a couple of units to sell. A Hemi rated starter on my 225 six banger would suit me just fine.

 

Starter motor has almost as much horsepower as the engine?

 

Well...it only took me two days to change the starter.....gotta be a record....lol but it was worth it....the noise in gone!

 

You'd be surprised at how much horsepower those little stinkers have.The windings on the starters for the larger engines are heavier. The six banger starter will start the Hemi, it just won't last as long. The old 6 volt starters are even heavier. Run 12 volts through those and that engine will spin FAST!

 

Not true! Although they will bolt up and work the heavy duty ones had longer motor body's(more torque). And don't think that you will get one from any of the parts stores. Reason is there where few of them around back in the day and by now no one is returning the HD cores to rebuild so they will give you the standard versions in place of it.