The old starter fried and was rebuilt locally. the nose of the starter was replaced. It turns over for a split second and usually makes this horrendous smashing noise. I was thinking " OK, I need to shim it out. The pinion must be slamming against the flywheel".

I used a 1/32 shim from a package of several shims. It's still making the horrendous noises. How many shims are common? How many did you have to use?

Is there something else going on?

 

my guess is that you still need to shim it... add another shim and see if it makes the starter more quite

i had to do that once i ended up useing 3 shims togher.

 

I have used anywhere from none to almost a full pack. The one that i used alot of shims wasent a stock style starter.

If you have the room use a screwdriver to pull the starter gear out and check how it lines up. So you dont have to keep cranking it to find out.