Thread: New One On Me

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I put my engine together some time back but don't drive the car as there is no glass in it. I just start it and move it around mostly. Today I heard a strange noise in the starter. It sounded like my starter was loose? I jacked it to removed the cover and looked to see what was wrong. Honestly I couldn't see a thing loose or bad. So I ran a remote starter button to under the car and while looking at the engagement point I pushed the button. The starter came in the gears turned. BUT the starter looked like it was to far from the flexplate. After a little checking and a LOT of counting I think I found my problem. The ring gear on the engine has 166 teeth. I also have several with 168 which is what I thought I put in. Guess not. Question is what are these 166 flexplates for. I'd like to mark them. I don't want this happening again.

I can't even imagien where that thing came from, but when I get it out I know where its going.
Thanks

The saga continues.
I still have this loud noise when I engage the starter. It has a new flexplate. It has a new starter. I have put in .120 of shim. First .020 then .040 then .060.
It still makes a racket the starter acts like it is hitting the ring instead of going in, but when you look at it it goes in. I have just brought in the gear with out turning the motor and it looks to be working like it should. With the cover off you can see whats going on but I don't see anything wrong. I guess my next step will be trying to start it from underneath, and watching.

Are you sure that the starter nose is correct ?

Also try this one out. Disconnect the short main cable from the lead to the solenoid. This will enable you to engage the solenoid so that the pinion kicks forward but the starter motor wont turn. While your at it disconnect your coil booster wire and main coil HT wire as a precaution. While you are under there with the remote button and having a looksee. And I dont have to say it but I will anyway, "keep your fingers out of the way". No matter how tempting it is to prod or feel the gap !

I agree with southerner. While back I put a high torque starter
on my chev and ran into simular noise problem. You can have
not enough shims, and you can have too many. Make sure your
starter drive gear is meshing well with fly wheel, and that when
you turn loose of the remote, the starter gear retracts and clears
the fly wheel. You could also just have a bad starter. Let us know
when and how you have solved problem. rd

You may have a flexplate with some excessive runout where the bolt pattern and centering hole are not concentric with the ring gear. So check the drive engagement in several places on the flexplate. This is very common with some aftermarket flexplates. Genuine GM flexplates are good here but expensive. You get what you pay for in this case. Hope this helps.