OK, I'm working on a 40 Mercury. The engine is rebuilt and I've gone through 2 bendix, the car is not out of the shop yet!! See the pics, I've done some searches here on the HAMB and I'm thinking that the spring might be weak. At any rate, take a look at the teeth on the gear.
I used this trick on cummins truck starters because the company was too cheap to buy new starters.: file the damaged area at an angle in the direction that it meshes on both the the starter & flywheel. This helps the meshing process while the starter motor is spinning.
Just to state the obvious; is the bracket the bolts to the oil pan and holds the end of the starter up still there? A lot of them got "lost" over the years. As an aside, I've had a lot of starters with teeth that looked worse than the over the years that worked fine.
The teeth on the flywheel ring gear probably look the same or worse. Did you use a new ring gear? Install it the correct way? Also if you are running 12V to the 6v starter it will engage much more violently....
My old F1 has been 12V for many years with the stock starter without one problem, a high dollar mini is a waste of money. As someone else said the support bracket needs to be on it, and I've seen many with teeth that looked alot worse than that and worked fine. Sounds like you got flywheel trouble....
. When the starter engages and the engine turns over does it sound horrendous as it spins? If so you may have a miss matched bellhousing and starter plate. Right click and save this pdf to your computer http://www.flatheadv8.org/bellhousing.pdf .
I just dropped off 2 flathead starters to get rebuild the other day. They booth need Bendexs .. he asked me if I wanted the new kind? I said I didnt know about them but said yes ..I will see I guess.
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