alright i've got an 84 i just picked up. my friend bought it the starter was bad he replaced it with a new one and shimmed it how he was told and it ripped the teethe off of it right away after a few starts, so he got another one and didnt shim it and it did it again and it cracked the case of the starter where the gear engages. its straight bolt pattern style starter. the engine i believe is an older one (70's 350)its carburated with a borg warner 5 speed i believe a T-5, not 100%. there is 3 holes where the starter bolts up the third on is staggered a lil so i tried a 3rd gen starter and it didnt bolt up. any idea on how i find the right starter for this when i dont know the exactly what the application is? what do i need to know to get the right starter, # engine codes? any input is appreciated.

 

Was the first starter broken in the case end that has the gear? or was the bendix gear broken?
I have fought this dragon before.
Everyone will say to put a mini-starter on it and that will be the last one you have to put on.
I'll say that the stock starter has been cranking stock V8 SBC's millions of times without breaking the end off of the starter.
What is wrong with the engine or electrical system that causes it to break starters?
Long story short, and a page out of the book: "Lessons Learned the Hard Way".
Take the perfectly normal distributor cap and rotor off.
Take them out in the middle of the driveway.
Take a large hammer and pound them into little tiny pieces.
Take a new cap and rotor and install them.
Take a rebuilt starter for a 78 model chevy pickup with 350, and install (shim if noisy).
Take a test drive.
Take a 6-pack of beer and drink it while looking at a pile of broken starters...
p.s. nice avatar pic .

 

thanks for the help. yea ive never seen the case break before. by case i mean the silver part that semi surrounds the gear that comes out and turns the fly wheel. the only reason i could guess is because it has higher compression. i picked up another stock starter for it and its a little bit bigger than the one that came off of it but is identical so maybe they just got the wrong one idk. if none of this works i will buy a mini starter and see what happens and go from there thanks for the input!

 

The "case end" or nose or as you call it, the part that semi- surrounds the gear. I've seen lots of these cracked/broken off. It's not from high compression. I've used stock starters on 12.5:1 engines "back in the day" and them not starting the engine when it was hot was the only drawback.
Trust me. You want to get rid of that Spawn-of-Satan distributor cap.
Or you can do it after the next starter is broken in a month or two if you want...

 

thanks for all your help. i will know what to look for in the future if this problem occurs again. but on the good side i figured it out. it was the the person that put it in had a bolt that was a 1/4 inch to long and didn't realize it so the starter was cocking and messing it up. (i hope that was the only problem with it). i started it up about 12 times today with a new stock starter and it looked great no griding or hang-ups. the engine is built and has a new distributor and all so it wasn't that this time. its a 350 bored and cammed to hell supposed to have 400hp coming from the motor and mated to a 5speed. i don't know much more than that i bought it from a friend that was broke. thanks again for the help.