Car is a '70 Cutlass with a stock 350, q-jet, dual exhaust, TH350 tranny. The engine top end was done about 20K ago. Trans has about 40K on it, with a filter chnage about 20K ago. All was well with the world until last week when I was driving a city street and suddenly I hear a shrieking/grinding that would make your hair stand on end!! Sounded like the fan grinding into something, so I pull over and shut down.

Upon inspection under the hood no obvious trouble could been seen-maybe the clutch fan is a little loose. So I start up again and before I can get out to look, the sound happens and the engine dies- this car never just dies. Now that can't be good I think to myself. I try to restart and...... no problem. I rev gently a couple of times and think "Time to go home, NOW". On the way home this noise happened only slightly a couple of times.

So I changed out the fan clutch with a spare that I had. This makes no difference-the source is not the fan. In the driveway I can reproduce the sound by revving the engine in Park, and in gear if I load it. It is intermittant and the duration is no more than a second

I dropped the inspection cover under the torque converter. No loose bolts there, and the starter is solid and works normally. This shieking/grinding is definitely from something rotating into something, and sometimes seems to cause a miss or stumble. The engine runs normally otherwise and the trans shifts normally. Can a torque converter with a broken vane do this? Could it stall the engine? I really could use some ideas here. Thanks-Steve

Dunno...Just guessing...alternator bearing?

My guess is left motor mount. Will let the fan touch the shroud.

Originally posted by d1_bradley:
My guess is left motor mount. Will let the fan touch the shroud. That makes a scraping sound as the blade shaves a big groove in the plastic shroud. Had one of those. Hard to find a good used shroud.

Well, I couldn't get the idea out of my head that the sound was like that of the starter engaging the flywheel with the engine running, so I started it up, and just for an instant, I turned the key to the start position. Sure enough it made tha same noise.

So I dropped the starter (easier to do that I thought than dropping the trans) and found the trouble. One of the small bolts holding the solenoid together had backed out and was intermittently bridging the switch wire and the battery cable causing the starter to engage.

Don't you just love it when the stars align and the fix is logical, easy and cheap? Well sort of cheap. I am having the starter rebuilt by a local electrical shop who is going to convert it to a high torque unit.

Thanks guys.