New starter will not shim
 

I just bought a $49 starter from Autozone. It has a "universal" nose (never seen one of these before) that has the holes for the staggered bolts and even bolts. I use the 168 tooth flywheel with my 4 speed so my starter is the staggered pattern.

Anyway, I pulled the dust cover and fitted the starter without shims to begin (old starter didn't need shims) and had to add a few to get ring gear clearance. I pulled the starter back out and put the dust cover back on and hooked eveything up and when I went to start it it sounded like my battery was dead. Checked voltage and it was 12.8 and I put my charger/starter (70A starter) on it and the same thing. I took the dust cover back off the check clearance and it still looked good. Reinstalled everything again with the same results. I am about to take this starter back to Autozone and or get a new battery because I left the charger on it for a few hours and I still only get 12.8 volts and when my volt meter is on it the voltage steadly drops while connected. What do you guys think? Take starter back? New battery or both?

Any suggestion?

Thanks

Autozone has some problems time to time. I would take both in and let them check them out. Battery may have a couple of dead cells or the starter is just no good. I went through this with a starter from there once, but they made it good. Sounds more like starter to me. JMO.

Good luck. :thumbs:

If it dont look like your old one, exchange it for one that does....

PS, a picture would help as there are others that may or may not work...also the engine size and year could have helped its identity..

:o Sorry, just assume that everyone knows it's a SBC.

Actually it's a ZZ4 (SBC 350) with a 4 speed. 168 tooth flywheel.


I did have the old one off and took it with me so I could get the core charge for it while there. The old starter worked fine but one day it started making a weird noise. I investigated and found the inboard bolt missing. I got a new starter bolt and while torquing it the bolt "tang" broke off. I suspect that it was cracked to begin with thus being the reason the first bolt fell out.

I'll take some pictures tomorrow of the new starter. It will be impossible to take one of the ring gear clearance because it can hardly be seen in person.

Two different starters will fit correctly, one is just a smaller version of the large one. Both have aluminum staggared noses..its the insides that are are used in the small starter giving it a gear reduction method ..plus it fits the late BB engines too...