292 chevy starter probs

I recently bought a 53 chevy 150 with an 292 inline 6 with a 350 tranny. The starter had 6 shims on it and has always made a strange noise upon starting. We pulled the motor because of some knocking issues that were fixed. Now everything was put back and while trying to startthe motor, the starter broke. Bought another one tried a few shim options but still sounds bad. My question is, Does anyone have a part number for the correct starter for this combo? Six shims just doesn't sound right.
Thanks in advance.

 

i am thinking the flexplate is wrong.

 

this is the opposite problem;
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=268184&highlight=flex+plate+teeth

 

You may be correct as the 292 Flexplate is 292 only and doesn't interchange with other engines. Same with the flywheel as far as I know.

Check the compatibility link on the O'Reilly's cheat sheet.
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d...=Search_03232_1030026_3703&pt=03232&ppt=C0338

 

15 years ago a friend went nuts with a early 80's? chevy pickup, 292 starter. He bought the truck I think, without a starter or maybe a dead starter.

He had a hard time finding a starter that would mesh correctly, and I do not recall how he fixed it. He has been a chevy builder for 45 years, so it's not like he was a newbie, either. I do think i recall something he said about 292 ring gear or flywheel was causing the problem. Something was different than normal chevy stuff.

 

I'm thinking it has a 168 tooth ring gear the same as my standard shift 292 Flywheel. The thing is that 292 engines use larger bolts to hold the flywheel/ flex plates on than the smaller sixes and V8's. I ran into that on mine when I automatically grabbed the same six point socket that I have used on countless small block Chev engines and it didn't fit the bolts on the 292 Flywheel.

 

The later 292s have 1/2" bolts, and 3 dowels. You can use a normal flex plate if you drill it to fit.

I try to fix Chevy OEM starter alignment problems by first seeing how much clearance there is between the starter shaft and the flywheel gear teeth, there should be 1/8", no more, no less. This would have been easier to fix before putting the engine back in the car, too

 

Thanks guys, will try a few things this weekend.