Flywheel and starters question

I know all the "153 tooth-168 tooth" flywheel questions have been answered before. My question is if some high performance flexplates are "close but not close enough"? The engine is out of a 85 caprice 305 pos with a metric th350. The flexplate teeth are in nearly new condition. heres the kicker, its busted the nose cone on four starters in as many days. I have shimmed the hell out of this thing, used the gear "mesh" gauge rod provided in the box. HELL, I even went back and read the directions provided in the box to see if I missed or forgot something! I have the gear depth set right but, the next tooth comeing around on the bendix wants to go head to head with the next tooth on the flexplate. Are their different bendix's ? with different teeth counts? I am stumped! Any idear's?????

 

Are you using a starter with straight across mounting bolts or stagered? They dont interchange. One is for the larger flywheel, one for the small...

 

i think there are different teeth counts on the starter drives...not sure if that is your problem but am sure i heard of the different drives. also check your timing could make a difference

 

I have HEARD TELL, that a flexplate can be DEFORMED when the torque converter nose bottoms out on the crankshaft, and the tq is tightened to the flexplate.

This issue can be fixed by putting a washer (3 of em) between the FP and the TQ.

This seems to be the best answer I have heard to the "mystery broken starters" that plague some Chevy builds....

(ever wonder WHy SOME TQs have washers between the FP and others don't?) Hmmm.

 

Edelbroke. yup thats the first thing I checked. I held the staggered bolt starter up in place and it was way obviouse it wouldnt work. The straight across bolt nose is the only one even close.

 

Your starter teeth haver to match the flywheel. Had this problem on a 82 buick regal. Not the nose cone problem but the teeth not matching up. Starter kept jamming up till i loosened it back up. Also the nose cones are different lenghts.

 

Try a starter from an 85' camaro. Think thats what i ended up using if i remember right. My engine at the time was an 84' 305.

 

I went through much the same thing about a month ago in my bucket.killed a alternator which killed the battery which inturn killed a starter which killed the fly wheel.all in one weekend!! Anyway after fixing everthing including a new flywheel and starter I still had problems.It grind and kicked back. phone my BBC buddy and ask for his 2 cent worth. He told me that it sound like a bad ground.So I replaced the main ground terminal with a new one and it fixed the problem. Seems that the ground was enough to run the system but with a strain on the system with tring to start it it would lose ground.Would never of dreamed in a million years that this would fix my problem. you never know it might be yours too.

 

Chevyshack, THATS the exact problem! the teeth wont match up to the flywheel! The engines out of an 85 Caprice. The Camaro uses the same part number starter.