flywheel ?

[squint]

Well you may have heard about my starter ordeal..

I am wondering if its possible that the guys who installed my engine put in a different flywheel?.. Possibly bigger than usual?..

My starter wont do anything.. It enguages.. but wont turn over the truck.. and the gear gets stuck against the flywheel..

[BALDMIKE]

Well I guess you could remove the dust cover and lay under the truck and count the teeth on the flywheel ?

[squint]

i thought of that.. but you cant see the teeth at the top.. . I would have to cound.. rotate.. count.. rotate.. count...lol

if it comes down to it.. I will

[WakBordr7387]

You could snake a tape measure up there, I cant remember exactly the dimensions but a 153 tooth is about 12" and the 168 is 14".
Could also be that you need starter shims, or using the wrong starter. The difference in starters is for the different flywheels. The staggared bolt pattern is for the 168 and the straight across is for 153.
I hope this helps.

[squint]

i have it shimmed to the hilt.. I have 8 shimms under it..!

i have the staggered one.. so i guess that means i have the one for the 168..

I managed to get it to start.. I (think) it was the batter terminals.. I got some battery spray.. and a wire brush and pollished everything to a nice perfect shine and put it all back on nice and tight.. seems to start now..

I will keep my fingeres crossed..

[piecesparts]

If oyu have the staggered on then it is for the big plate, if they put in the wrong flywheel or flexplate, then it would be really smaller than the starter mount. Are you sure the starter is good? Has someone machined it to fit someother mess. The shop manual (Chevy) has a process for machining the starter mounting pads for fitment, I personally would try another starter before I went anywhere else.

[WakBordr7387]

I have another suggestion, I dont really have anything to explain why it worked better for me, but it did anyway.
I constantly had grinding problems like yours. My starters would turn over fine a couple times, the start grinding real bad and no amount of shimming or adjustment could do a thing about it. I tried gear reduction mini starters, They worked a ton better. They would go alot longer before they started grinding.
I later found out I was using a th350 torque converter on a th350c and it was pushing and bending my flywheel out a shape and it was what was causing my problem.
I just thought Id share that since the mini starters worked alot better than the stock style did for me.

[piecesparts]

If you go to the trouble of replacing the troque convertor then go to a heavy duty SFI approved flexplate. I have one on my 91 Chevy and it flexes enough that the ballooning of the torque converter allows it to touch the starter drive on my mini starter, causing a scraping noise when under acceleration. Presently I am running a rebuilt stock starter and the noise is gone, but I will upgrade again later.