estone06

Alright guys, I have a 91 rs with a 383 stroker. i have the correct parts etc...my starter is continuously going out. i went through about 9 total of the auto zone starters in about a weeks time. I went and bought a high dollar starter from oreilly and it has lasted about 100 starts. I have tried the starter with 3 shims to start and it was fine for about 75 cranks, then all of a sudden it was grinding, so i went to only 1 shim, now it has grinded, so i took all the shims out, gave me one good start, and now it grinds. the flywheel is still okay. I am at the conclusion it is a bad starter what do you guys think?
Eddie

Comp788

You need to set correctly set the starter height and depth. When I did my starter in my 67 camaro I has to set all of that stuff. As I remember CSR (a starter company that summit sells) gives you all of the information for checking all of that stuff. I know that my 67 required a special front starter mount block to end up getting my starter drive in the right location. There stuff is not cheap but it your car starts evrythime you'll be done with it. The block that I had to buy was extra from the starter. As i remember it was like $70.00 and I had to purchase it direct from CSR.

That should solve your problems!

estone06

Well, I am hopeful that that is not my problem lol. I am thinking that since it is a fresh swap and that the starter is for the year block and all is correct with that, that this starter has just worn out and when it engages that there is just a bit ofplay in there. anybody else????

rgarcia63

Have you inspected all the gear teeth on the fly/flex wheel?
Without seeing the damage to the start gear and fly/flex wheel we can only assume that the clearances aren't correct.
Please post pictures of:
Starter
close-up of nose and gear specifically the wear pattern.
Fly/flex wheel gear wear pattern.

estone06

I thought about it all again and again. I thought that I would take the starter off and take ti to be tested. tested fine. i asked the parts guy to go and grab another one to test it out. when we tested that one, it had kicked quite a bit harder. so i came to the conclusion the teeth when the would kick out of the old starter, they were becoming misaligned somehow internally through the starter. well the new one fixed the problem, thankfully. hopefully, it will be a long, long, long, long term solution.

estone06

okay well the starter was great for about 10 turns. i went to dinner and just for reassurance went to turn it again, and she is grinding. i have three shims on there right now, i am thinking either 1 shim or no shims, what do you guys say?

rgarcia63

What do you say to some pictures?
Also include one from underneath, and with the gears meshed.

estone06

Will take some photos tomorrow morning. I am thinking that I will take all shims out of there and see how the teeth fit up that way first as opposed to three shims on it to start with. I will post photos after I finish it up guys.

DartByU

What year is your engine? The starter pad and holes on lots of early 70's 350's were not machined correctly from the factory and had bad problems, it took a lot of work to get them shimmed correctly. My brother had one that would break the started bolts off after a few months untill I got it shimmed right. And P.S. your engine is not .40 over, it's .040 over!!!