Well I thought it was a flywheel problem but after inspecting the starter I can see that the teeth are worn down and it is not fully engaging the flywheel and is grinding. Some of the flywheel teeth are broken (and have been for a while) so my theory is that when making contact witht he broken teeth it wears down the starter teeth which then makes it so does not make contact with the good teeth. Does this make sense? I'll probably have to replace the starter and the flywheel, huh?

 

What block is this (approximate year model)?

 

maybe you should of shimmed the starter before installing it. sound like it wasnt shimmed before install

 

It's the L98 block...and it has worked fine for about a year, no problems.

 

you most likely were chipping away at it slowly thats why you might not of noticed it. i dont know if there is a topic on shimming a starter on this board or not

 

So this is a stock starter and has worked untouched for years?

 

It's a stock 350 starter that has worked fine for the last year. But I can see smokefan's point about the shims and it wearing down slowly.

 

You'll never believe this...the housing for the starter was almost cracked in half. It got torqued so much somehow that it cracked. I got a new one on my warranty and it cranks again...now I just have to work out the timing issues.