85 C10 Starter Problems

[RMrider17]

Hey, I have two problems with my truck its an '85 2wd long bed c10, with a 305/350

The first problem is that the starter will not catch the flexplate. I switched out the old flexplate thinking it had some bad teeth, and put it back togeather it started real nice maybe 20 times, and then started grinding again. Do I need to shim it? Or replace the starter gear maybe? or both?

The second problem is that suddenly my key wont turn to all the way to start, so i have to pull the linkage in the steering colum towards me to get it to crank. What do I need to do to fix this? Did it pop off? or do they randomly go bad or something?

Thanks any thoughts are appreciated

-Adam