Help with Chevy Starter

[e_lunatic]

I have a 1970 Chevy camaro that is causing me MAJOR problems. 355ci small block with a TH400 auto trans.

I swapped the motor last year. all the sudden when i start the car, the starter and flywheel are grinding.
after swapping the starter twice and using many combos of shimes, it still grinds to the point where now it wont start (the starter gear will spin but doesn't always come in contact with the flywheel).
after taking it to a dealer to have it looked at, we determined that the starter gear is too far away from the flywheel, even with NO shimes. the teeth on the flywheel still look pretty good for having eatin 3 starters in 1 week. also it doesn't appear that the gear on the starter has the same pattern as the flywheel.
my question is why is this happening? and how come it worked fine for more than a year and now I can't get any starters to work? i was thinking maybe the flywheel isn't made for a 350 motor, thus won't mesh with a 350 starter.
anyone know what's going on with it? or point me in the right direction?

Thanks a ton!

[ZTFab]

First off, do you have a stock style starter or a "mini" gear reduction?....
Next thing you need to look at is the tooth count on your flexplate (flywheel for a stick car). It's either gonna be a 168 tooth or a 153 tooth....

Most mini starters will accomodate either toothcount due to different mounting holes on the starter housing. A stock style starter however, will usually only accomodate the flywheel/flexplate tooth count it was designed for....

I'm not sure as to what tooth counts usually came on what engine/trans combos and seeing as how almost everything from almost every year SBC bolts from one to another, it's hard to tell when the original stuff came off and "Johnny Mechanic" went to the salvage yard and got a "sweet deal" on the wrong part....

If you have the stock style 168 tooth starter and the 153 tooth flexplate, the reason it probably worked for a little while was the fact that there was enough contact between the starter gear and the very tip of the flexplate teeth to allow it to turn until the tip of the teeth became worn. And seeing as how you said it was a 355ci, I'm sure you don't have stock compression ratios either which means the engine is harder to crank and could've cause the teeth to wear soon as well.....

All that B.S. said...check your flexplate tooth count and let us know what style of starter you have, stock or mini? Hope this longwinded response helps.... :eek:

[tedmales]

i had a mini gear reduction starter on my jeep pull the same stuff. i took the billet block that the starter hooked too and had it machined so it would reach. it worked fine after that.

[e_lunatic]

it's a stock starter. the flexplate is aftermarket. i guess im gonna have to pull the thing out and count the teeth, haha.
if the tooth count was wrong for the starter and it was just grabbing the edge of the flexplate like you said, would it grind just a little or would it sound like nothing was wrong? cuz it sounded great for a long time.

thanks for the advise!!!
anyone else have any ideas before i start pulling this thing apart?

[ZTFab]

It would've sounded OK as long as there was enough contact from the bendix gear on the starter and the teeth on the flexplate until the weaker of the two began to wear...

You said it was a stock starter with an aftermarket flexplate...most aftermarket flexplates are alloy steel and a lot thicker than stock to meet SFI approval for racing and that is probably why you wasted so many starters...cheap bendix gear meets high grade .188" alloy steel and guess which one wins....

Tedmales said that he had to machine the billet block for the starter...I too have had to play with the mini starters...never had to machine them, I just had to phase them in to fit some high capacity oil pans and down swept headers on Super Comp Dragsters...either way we were both able to get them to function...I believe mini gear reduction starters to be the best choice, especially when dealing with high compression motors with a lot of initial advance in the timing...

If you don't want to pull your motor or trans out to count the teeth, buy or borrow a flywheel turning tool, crawl underneath the car and remove the inspection cover(if you have one)...that should expose about 10-15 teeth at a time...

Make a starting point and mark, in succesion, every 10 teeth you count with a paint pen on the flywheel...that way when your girlfriend calls you on the phone to ask when you'll be done working on that "stupid car", you don't lose track...still a little bit of a pain in the a**, but better than yankin' the motor or trans...

Hope this helps...too bad you can't get the car to start, I'd let you bring it up to my shop so we can use on of my lifts and tools to check it out...those always make it easier...

[e_lunatic]

yep one car garage in an apartment complex isn't the best place to be working on a car liek this lol.

[ZTFab]

No, that's not the best place to be working.... :eek:

Hope some of the info I gave will help...it's a shame to have such a nice car and not be able to enjoy driving it...let me know what you find out...