Thanks Chevyboy. Once I get by this little starter issue it should be all downhill from here. I went to our archieves because Jag454 had exactly this problem, and I called Powermaster for him. The senior tech from Powermaster posted this response:


Hi guys John Brady from Powermaster here. I am the senior tech for them and this an unusual situation here. The gear looks to be retracted all the way from the picture. What I would suggest is the check the distance from the centerline of the mounting holes to the engine side of the ring gear. It should be 15/16 of an inch. To get an accurate measurement take a straight edge and lay it across the centerline of the starter mounting bolt holes in the engine block. Then take a ruler or tape measure and measure to the engine side of the ring gear. By the looks of the converter and flexplate it may be a situation where the converter is not seated in the trans all the way or the flexplate is on backwards. To check for the converter being seated all the way, take out the converter bolts and you should be able to "slide" the converter back into the trans about 1/4 to 3/8 inch leaving an air gap between the converter and flex plate. If you take the bolts out and the converter will not slide back in and you cannot spin the converter freely it is more than likely not seated and is pushing the flexplate forward into the starter. To have a starter that far engaged at rest and not have a flexplate/converter issue is HIGHLY unlikely.


So tomorrow I will see if I have 15/16ths of an inch, and go from there.


Don