1997 960 - Starter Wont Engage After Timing Belt Failure

[BocaBryan]

Hey folks,

Not exactly sure what's going on here.

Water pump seized up on the way to work the other day, causing the timing belt to come off, while travelling at around 30 mph. Towed it home, replaced the water pump, reset the timing. I want to see if I can fire up the car at to see how bad the damage is and/or do a compression test, but now the starter will not engage. It will spin up just fine but the gear will not engage.

It happened immediately, too. Right when the belt broke (while still coasting even) I tried to re-start the car and I got the "whirring" sound of a starter not engaging. I tried it a couple more times once I stopped before I realized the timing belt was off. I didn't try it again until I got the timing belt back on.

I just don't understand how the 2 things are related. There must be something that caused the starter to stop engaging exactly at the moment the timing went out. I'm at a loss as to what's going on. I'm not aware of any way that they could be related. It just seems like such an unlikely coincidence. Could it have been due to trying to fire the car right after it happened? Maybe I sheared the teeth off the gear or broke something because I hit the starter when the engine couldn't turn?

I'd pull the starter (and I still might) but, given it's location, that looks like a colossal pain the in ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD.

I might just sell the car as-is, or keep it and slowly work on it after I buy myself a $2000-ish car to get to work and back.

Maybe I got lucky and the car is driveable. At least to be able to move it out of the one parking space I have, get it to another location or to a shop without having to tow, or to even use it to go look at some other cars.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[sjmcarz]

Pull the starter and bench test it, and yes, you may have sheared teeth off of the ring gear, check it when you pull the starter.