Hey all, been a month since I've been on. In December, I installed a new 350 longblock. After getting most of the little problems worked out, the starter motor started to drag real bad and then burned up. It did not have shims in it with the old motor, but for some reason needed a few with the new one. Bought a new one and bolted it on without shims, and the car started fine a few times and then began to grind real bad. After shimming it every which way, it kept following the same pattern. If I bolt it up without shims, there is way too much clearance between the bendix shaft and flywheel. It looks fine until I make the last few turns on the bolts whereas the back of the starter rises and the front falls down, giving the big gap between shaft and flywheel. The flywheel is good. The starter is just too far away. I checked back with the auto store and they rechecked the numbers and said they sold me the correct starter. Like I said, I followed the shimming directions and tried it really every which way. Sorry this is so long, but trying to describe the situation acurately. If nobody has any ideas that can help, I may just get it started once and drive it to a shop. Thanks in advance for any advice. :cheers:

 

Heh. I just had a long block put in- I replaced the starter with a high torque starter that I got in the Eckler's catalog. Works fanstastic, not problems, really cranks right up. I spoke to a few mechanics who also recommended going to a high torque starter when replacing an engine.

 

Mike,
I just sent you an email message with some information on my starter install, maybe it'll help you out.
Good Luck!

 

You can cut a shim in half and use (I think its the inside half) only. This will bring the bendix closer to the flexplate.

 

Interesting.
Have a Camino that we just bought for my 17 year old --- he has the fever but will crawl, then walk --- same deal there. We either had too much or too little clearance. I think they are batching starters these days as I never had this prob back in the old days... :nonod:
What we did was shim the h*** out of the outboard bolt and this swung the gear in towards the flywheel. I think the kid used a washer. It is doing find now but we did have some trouble with the thing...