plymouth starter/flywheel trouble

I think maybe where your problem is coming in is the fact that the 230 crank has a thicker flange than does the 218 or 201. The 230 flywheel has about a 3/16 deep recess milled in the mating face where it bolts to the crank flange to make up for the increased thickness.

If you just redrilled your original flywheel and bolted it to the 230 crank it in effect moved your ring gear back approximately 3/16 of an inch not allowing your bendix to fully engage the teeth on the ring gear.

If you have the 230 flywheel you can easily remove the ring gear from your original flywheel and put it on the 230 flywheel. All it takes is some heating of the ring gear with a torch then a couple of light whacks with a mallet and it will pop off. I did that with mine when I went with the 230 to replace my 218. The 230 had bad teeth and needed replaced. Once I had the ring gear off the 218 I put in on my BBQ grill got it hot and it literally fell onto the 230 flywheel.

 

...almost... The flanges are, essentially, the same thickness. The flange projection, from the face of the block is different, 1" vs 1.187" and thus the 3/16" variance.
So, as you note, a 218 flywheel on a 230 pushes the ring back, away from the block just as a 230 flywheel on a 218 moves the ring gear too close to the block.
Although there are some examples of very wide ring gears I doubt that it will properly correct this interface problem; a correct flywheel will, similarly, machining 0.187" from the starter mounting area will move the starter back.

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73RR, thanks for the clarification on the flange. I knew it was 3/16 further toward the transmission and assumed it was just that much thicker.

My suggestion for the ability to change the ring gear was that if he had the later model 230 flywheel/ring gear he could swap his original ring gear to get the proper tooth count for starter bendix meshing.