MuuMuu101's 68 Dart, A Learning Process...

72bluNblu said

Can you physically turn the engine? As in, turn the crank with a socket and ratchet or bar?

If you lost the water pump, the fact that the temp gauge read ok would just mean the water where the sender unit is at was ok. If no water was actually being pumped, then you could have overheated parts of the engine even with a normal gauge reading.

It’s worst case, but the starter could be toast because the engine seized because of a local overheating problem caused by no water circulation.

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God... I hope you're wrong.

Do I use the big screw in the center of the crank pulley? If so, I don't have a socket large enough that fits on the crank pulley. I believe the largest I have is a 13/16". And I can't turn it over by hand... I tried and I'm really strong. I swear. Jk.

So, to recall what happened before the starter "gave out." When I started the car, it would fire back up. I specifically remembering that in every scenario, the rpm would rise to 3000 rpm and then drop to 0, causing it to die. I'd assume that should mean no seized engine. Plus, it seems like the water temp sensor is on the intake manifold, which is on the engine, so hopefully that means that cool liquids were in the engine.

I did take out the starter and the teeth look ok, which is good because that means no stray teeth in the bellhousing. If I'm not mistaken, there are some clutches in the starter that can fry, correct?

I also lost another 1/2" wrench (2nd one so far for this car) due to forgetting to remove the negative battery cable before working on a car.