Big Block Bantam

[bob w]

New problem. The starter worked fine for 4 times. Now grinding and skipping.

 

[earthman]

I love this thing

 

[bob w]

I shimmed the outer bolt of the starter 1/8" to get better gear engagement. It worked. The little guy is in storage until spring. Should be ready to go.

 

[MercuryMac]

Thanks for that Bob. I have been wondering if that would work for me, and now I have more confidence in my dreams.

 

[smallfoot]

I shimmed the outer bolt of the starter 1/8" to get better gear engagement. It worked. The little guy is in storage until spring. Should be ready to go.

There's been a lot of that lately! Some videos I've viewed have narrowed the problem down to several things. Some found shoddy or simply worn out machinery that make the nose cones on starters are producing poorly matched mating surfaces and some are accusing poor materials being used. If you don't get confused by just using the wrong starter with the proper flex plate or flywheel as in the GM stuff requires, it could be true about the manufacture processes of late. I'm a chevy fan and over the years I never had problems with putting one in and not having any problems with alignment. The last 3 I've installed, 2 on my stuff and one on a friends truck have given me fits with your problem. I solved my friends issue by going with a high torque racing starter that fits either flex or flywheel and the matching surfaces were lots more precise. On my 2, I screwed around with shims till I got them pretty good but didn't like number of shims it took and took them out and replaced the nose cones with my old starter parts and dammed if it wasn't just the nose cone issue...

 

[bob w]

I have the problem on three different cars. Like you, smallfoot, I never had a problem for decades. Never shimmed a starter before. Trouble is, shimming both bolts moves the starter farther away for less gear mesh. A starter shop sold a modified snout to me and it worked. They're out of business now. Should have stocked up.
I've shimmed the starter 1/8" off square and it should be a little more. I've used everything from Chinese rebuilds to expensive high torque aftermarket racing starters. They all have given me problems.
I wonder if line boring moves the crank farther up in the block?

 

[smallfoot]

I wouldn't expect that line boring would move the crank that much but ya never know. I'm one of those guys that doesn't turn much in for core charges so I have plenty of spare parts. If your project goes sideways again on that, maybe I can send you an old snout...