52 Chevy Starter Problem

Stumped! Starter drive hits ring gear and does not engage teeth. Therefore solenoid can not complete circuit and engage starter.

Background: 52 Chevy Deluxe with 216, 72K, all original. I recently took this car over from my father who had it since 1974. The starter has always worked intermitently. I wanted to make it right, but now I've put many hours into it and am still stuck.

The starter is a rebuilt starter that I suspect was put on decades ago. The starter itself works great.

New battery. Fully charged. All contacts and ground super clean.

New solenoid.

I have run wire from starter trigger on solenoid to bypass starter button. After removing cover from bottom of crankcase so I can observe, I've had an assistant hit wire from solenoid to the battery while I watch from under the crankcase. The starter drive hits the ring gear and stops; does not engage the ring gear. I can rotate the crank, and then the starter drive will engage. Would engage about 50% of the time depending on position of ring gear.

I attempted to grind the wear off of each ring gear tooth and put a minor bevel on each edge. This did not solve the problem.

I greased the ring gear and the teeth on the starter drive. This solved the problem, but quickly the grease spun off and I was back to the same issue.

I put on a new starter drive. Now the problem seems worse.

I've repositioned the starter on the mounting bolts (there isn't much play) and that didn't help.

- It seems like this is an allignment problem?? I can't quarantee that it's the correct starter, but it certainly looks correct in every way so I'm pessimistic that a new starter would solve the issue.
- I've heard of shims being used when mounting the starter, but aren't these only to adjust the depth of the starter drive relative to the ring gear? That doesn't seem to be the problem here.

Ideas???

 

did you try leaving the mounting bolts cracked just a hair to allow for slight movement for alignment? If you tried that did the bendix engage ?

 

Please READ the "sticky" at the top of this page....INTRODUCE YOURSELF as per HAMB protocol ,,,This is the forum for Introductions....READ,,READ READ,,,Learn the rules and procedures here before just posting anywhere

 

Sorry for my egregious error. Can you tell me how to delete that thread from that category?

 

Go to your original post, hit edit, and then delete.

 

You just need to put a blown 500 caddy in there like dave out in PHX Socal did fixed all his problems in his 52 lol

 

huh?

 

hope I'm not getting sh*t for trying to help the guy !!!