starter flex plate problems

[FrankC]

Hey all i been having a big problem with my 1981 El Camino i put in a small block 350 with a turbo 350 tranny but i have gone through 8 starters and 4 flex plates and cant figure out the problem we tried shimming the starter with different sizes and diffrent starters and still having this problem its been tearing up the bendex gear and or the flex plate i ordered a flex plate 168 tooth and starter to match and ran for a few days then started to do it again. I been trying to get this going all summer long and still cant get it right. any help would be greatly appreciated.

[etex211]

Could your starter be too far away from the flywheel? That happens with some blocks.

 

If it is too far away, there are two ways to get it closer:

 

1. Mill the starter nose

2. Put a washer between the starter and block on the outside bolt, then tighten the inside bolt first. This isn't an ideal fix, but it can work.

 

Are you using the starter brace and the correct starter bolts? The proper starter bolts should have a knurling that goes up into the counterbore in the block.

[clm7214]

Are you sure you shimmed it correctly? It sounds like a clearance problem to me. I used to have hell with starters on my 383 stroker i built, but it had 11.5:1 compresion. In my case the motors wore out, but i have had ones that needed shimmed and they did exactly what yours are doing.

[FrankC]

I shimmed the out side bolt with 2 washers and it started up fine the first crank but sometimes it doesnt grab and just hear starter spining i am goin to try another shim to see what happens. Thanks for the help.

[etex211]

I'm not sure that I'd put any more than one washer in there. You have to really be careful. This changes the angle of the starter nose in relation to the block. If you go too far, then you risk binding the bolts and breaking them......

 

Starter bolts broken off in the block are no fun at all. I've been there before.

[frdfandc]

Just one question though

 

If you add shims, doesn't that move the bendix gear farther away from the flex plate???

 

So if it doesn't engage, you might need to REMOVE shims, not add.

[TEE]

Just one question though

 

If you add shims, doesn't that move the bendix gear farther away from the flex plate???

 

So if it doesn't engage, you might need to REMOVE shims, not add.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

Agree...I haven't had to use any shims on the last few starters...trucks anyway.

[etex211]

Just one question though

 

If you add shims, doesn't that move the bendix gear farther away from the flex plate???

 

So if it doesn't engage, you might need to REMOVE shims, not add.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

 

A washer between the starter and the block on the outside bolt, with nothing between the starter and the block on the inside bolt, will change the angle of the starter and will get the starter bendix closer to the flywheel's starter ring.

 

It's an old trick, and not an ideal fix.

 

For the number of problems described at the beginning of the thread, I suspect that we're dealing with something more than just a starter and flexplate problem. It has to be mismatched parts or something.