vintage-racer

Hi guys ,My 69 small block car has had a terrible sort of binding sound while starting,so much so that I feel it detracts from the beauty of the car .I actually park in the back so noone will hear the starter engage.The car has a 11"big block fly wheel from a 68 427.After I purchased the car I replaced the starter,thinking that was the problem, to no avail,identical noise,then I tested an assortment of shims ,still sounds the same as when I first looked at the car.I'm stumped...I heard that these same flywheels were used on 70 lt1s.Do I need a different #starter?Do I need a different flywheel? I've changed the bolts,It even has a different block in it now still that same horrible noise.PLESE HELP......

gkull

What kind of sound are you talking about?

Just fire the selenoid while under the car and see how the teeth engage

Little Mouse

After you check the starter drive engagement, I'm guessing the
starters bushings are bad, can you borrow another starter and
try it??

vintage-racer

The starter solenoid makes a loud "clunk" as it engages the flywheel,and then the starter seems to struggle to spin the motor @ a normal rotating speed(with or w/o plugs).I've checked all elec. connections,replaced the starter,and even put in a new small block over the winter,same old noise.The only thing still unchanged is the fly wheel itself,which really looks to be in pretty nice shape. The only thing is that it appears to be a bigblock fly wheel.I don't know if I should be using a different starter w/ an 11" clutch flywheel as opposed to the normal 10.5" small block clutch flywheel?

Little Mouse

What size clutch you have or what motor your flywheel was on makes
no difference, chevy made two flywheel sizes one had 168 tooth
ring gear the smaller one was 153 tooth, if I remember right the
168 tooth was 14 inch in diameter the 153 tooth 13 in diameter.
If you had a starter that did not match you would not be starting your
car at all. it sounds to me like the starter you have is dragging a little.

gkull

I don't know because i'm not there to look at it. But did you use any shims between the starter and the block? You have to be under the car and click the sel so it kicks the starter gear out to the flywheel. anything over 50% engagement is good. If you have a larger 168 tooth and a new starter you should be able to zing a small bock up to over 1000 rpm

69autoXr

The large flywheel with 11" clutch is the standard small block size, the smaller flywheel with 10.5" clutch was the hi-perf setup.

68notray

All neutral balanced small block or big block flywheels will interchange. 10.5" or 11" are both 168 tooth. As long as you have the matching starter "nose" and bellhousing. You'll know right away if any of the 3 are mismatch - won't start at all. You must have a bad starter bendix or motor.

TedH

I bought a $10 pack of shims when I was having trouble with solenoid to flywheel clearance. Was getting a 'clanging' noise (after I let it go to long...) and found the starter gear bearing (it looks like a bearing, perhaps more of a washer/shim between the starter gear and rear of starter) had failed and allowed the starter gear to slip too close to the flywheel. All because I didn't shim it properly to begin with and the starter gear was too 'close' to the flywheel causing binding and wear on that bearing. As others have said, if shimmed properly, the starter will SING and easily crank the engine up to 1,000 rpm with a good charge.

Now, my (rebuilt) starter with correct shim spins the engine easily with no struggle (and no clang).

Added benefit from the experience with my starter is that since I replaced my in-dash CD player at the time with a newer Kenwood AND installed a new battery, I do not have the battery drain I once had. I can let the car sit for several months and it spins over easily (no more dead battery) even when hot. So, I fixed a bunch of gremlins when I had my starter clearance issues.

Best of luck and let us know how it works out!

Ironcross

And Big Blocks use the 168 tooth wheel and 11 in clutch ....The light small 13 lb. starter I have only seen on L-88`s, not Small Blocks or regular Big blocks ....

Do not use shims...OE stuff don't need them, plus it moves the starter away from the flywheel....Normally a bad choice......Your noise may be from a bad ring gear as the starter stops almost every time in the same position...the ring gear over the years and others driving habits can contribute in excessive wear and make a horrible sound....like grinding teeth

riverracer au

i'm guessing that he's fixed it by now, original post was 8yrs ago