Need to replace 1970 Eldorado starter

Look, I dont know specifically, but in those years, almost all the starters were installed into the bell housing of the tranny. Go to the back of the engine, where it connects to the tranny, and look there.

I dont know about the hissing, but check all the cables up to the starter, and pull the starter and have it checked by a loca. starter/generator shop.

It should be on the end of the fat cable from the battery post.

If it is turning over at first then stops turning over it isn't the starter.

Sounds more like you have a bad connection in the system. Probably a bad battery cable feeding the starter. If you can hear the "hissing" it is probably the connection on the battery end.

It's on the front side of the engine usually has a cover over it as well.

Well i don't know that you can take his description too literally. The problem he may be having is a slipping bendix clutch. The "hissing" might be the high speed whine of the starter as it spins out.

-jim

I finally got the car started but only after about

So after nearly 100 bad starts it finally turned the engine over and I took the car for a spin of several miles. The next day it took 2-3 tries to turn the engine over, the first 1 or 2 tries almost doing it but not quite.

Does this shed light on the problem for anyone?

And each time you were doing additional damage to your flywheel, no doubt.

I'd pull the starter, inspect the flywheel, and get the starter bench-tested.

No, because you haven't done any of the things needed for diagnosis.

--scott