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While camping in an area where there is no cell coverage, I went to start my speedster and didn’t realize it wasn’t in neutral and I didn’t have the clutch pushed down. It lurched forward and then I turned the key off. Put the transmission in neutral and went to start it and nothing but a click. The starter was trying hard but wouldn’t turn the engine. Several of us guys pushed the car up a road and my wife got in and we pushed her pretty fast and had her put it in second gear and it just stopped the car cold. We pushed it into the camp spot and went to a payphone and called AAA. On the way back from the payphone someone suggested that we rock the car back and forth in first gear because the starter might be stuck on a tooth of the fly-wheel.  They rocked it and they said the engine was moving so I started it up and it started. So we canceled AAA. After about 10 minutes I tried starting it again and it started to turn over then froze again so we rocked it and unfroze it and I drove two hours home no problem. What do you think I did when I first tried to start it and it was accidentally in 1st gear because that’s when all the problems started? Thank you in advance for any suggestions of what it might be!

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First thing I'd check is the tightness of both starter bolts. If either is loose at all, I'd make a note of it. Then I'd pull it and look at the little gear on the end to make sure it was nice. Then put it on the bench and get a battery and some jumper cables and check the mechanism that makes it shoot out and engage the flywheel.

Then I'd get a flashlight and a breaker bar and slowly turn the engine while checking every tooth on the flywheel. If any were buggered up I'd think about changing that out asap.

Finally check the other three bolts/nuts/studs holding the transaxle to the engine. I don't know the torque spec for these offhand but I'd be sure to make them tight.

If everything looked good I'd put the starter back on and figure it was a weird glitch.

But my guess is, if you look carefully, you'll see something that's obviously not as manufactured.

Good advice, after reading this thread and finding out this is a VW IRS tranny mated to a Porsche 912 engine could there be a problem? The starter is mounted on the tranny and the bushing hole ( is there one in a 912 engine?) would be on the engine. Are they a perfect fit, being cousins? Curious. Anyone know for sure? Interesting.

@R Thorpe posted:

Good advice, after reading this thread and finding out this is a VW IRS tranny mated to a Porsche 912 engine could there be a problem? The starter is mounted on the tranny and the bushing hole ( is there one in a 912 engine?) would be on the engine. Are they a perfect fit, being cousins? Curious. Anyone know for sure? Interesting.

Starter bushing is on the transmission FYI. Also, most VWs have a 200mm flywheel, same as a 912, so everything plays nice together.

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