I finally got under the car today.

When I try to start my vette, there is a horrible sound coming from engine.  If I just hold the key, the car will come to life as usual.

I thought I had loose starter bolts, but they are tight and secure as is the starter.

Could a bad solenoid make a loud horrible chattering sound?

Jim

It can if the solenoid is loosing the connection inside.....it will not allow the drive gear to stay engaged, so it just bounces in/out, causing a chatter-like noise. 9 time out of 10, it's because the terminal inside has gotten burnt in the one spot where it makes contact with the bolt that the battery cable is attached to. You can normally disassemble the solenoid, loosen the nut holding the terminal to the solenoid case, and turn the bolt/terminal 90 degrees, giving the drive gear fork a new spot to make contact with. It's not a hard job, but you might want to just replace the solenoid and be done with it.

Another thought. If you are the one that was/is having trouble with the starter bolts loosening, be SURE you have the correct bolts holding the starter to the engine block. The correct bolts will have serrations on them just behind the threads. These serrations help keep the bolts from loosening....kinda like a mechanical thread lock.

Thanks Joel.  Gives me something to look for .

Can't thank you enough for all the advice you've given to keep my vette on the road. 

Just an update.  With my son working under the car, we experimented with different shimming variations.  We got rid of the chatter with three shims on one side.  Had to buy a new bolt for that side as well as it wasn't long enough.  Don't know why it worked correctly before, but now it starts great.

Weird thing happened while we started it on one of the tries--the horn sounded.  This is my horn that hasn't worked since I got the car.  There's hope.

Jim

 

"On ONE side"? Do you mean that you "shimmed" between the starter and engine block ONLY on one bolt? Do you know how thick the final shimming was/is? I wouldn't recommend getting too far away from flat on the starter mounting like that....it can(and has) break the nose of the starter off(unless it is a cast iron nose), or in some cases, break the starter bolt(s). Did you use regular starter shims, short shims, flat washers...or what?
Wonder why all of the sudden you had this noise start? Had you done anything to the flywheel/trans, engine, or starter before the noise started?

.062 on the outer bolt.  regular starter shims from oreilly, package of 8.  Shimming both sides didn't work.  This was the optimum solution.  If the nose cracks, well, I was warned.  And no work on anything but brakes in the interim.

The starter that came with my car turned out to be for a 65 corvette 350, so I'm not rebuilding it.

Jim