Technical SBC starter eating flywheel

Crossmembers are all removable. But still have to support things somehow. There is less than 3/4 of an inch between firewall and trans flange. I wasn't going to risk paint being messed up.
Pulling the body was a matter of 4 bolts and lifting. Quite easy.
From unbolting the body to body back in place and tight was less than 2 hours, and no scratched paint.

Major thanks to @squirrel for the shimming tips. Took about 15 minutes to get in place. Now I've got beautiful full engagement and the starter doesn't make near as much noise as it did before.
Squirrel, if you're even in Denver I'll buy you dinner!

Always used ford motors, never had to shim. Whole new world to me.

Car is almost done. Had to order some willwood bleeder screws, as soon as I have brakes I can test drive .

 

Glad that worked for you My question is how do you check the tooth engagement when you're running a full safety bellhousing with block plate?

 

Check it before you install the bellhousing.

If you are using the 3 bolt starter that bolts to the bellhousing, you don't need to worry about it, they always seem to mesh properly.

 

Even a stock enclosed bell ,as in manual trans ,
if you have to replace the starter , what then ?

 

I had a similar problem with starter motors and flywheels.
I changed stater motors 5 or 6 times and the problem was still there after all of the shimming and everything else.

I only way I found the cause of the problem was when I asked a friend to just tap the key and I could not believe what I was seeing the starter motor was moving up and down as if it was not tight.

Once again I made sure the bolts were tight and then I realized the outside bolt hold on my 350 had airline cracks and each time the motor was started it would make a wild noise and start taking teeth off the starter motor or the flywheel.

I tried the epoxy from Summit and it worked for about one month before the problem came back again.

The cause was that from 1977 through the early 80's starter motors came with two different styles bolts with one being metric and the other a standard bolt.
When I used a Veneer Calibur to measure their lengths the metric bolt was a little longer so when I installed it and then torques it down it bottom out in the hole and cracked a great running 350 engine.

The lesson I learned was to measure the length of the starter bolts before installing them.
When I went back to NAPA and a few other auto parts stores and asked them which bolts should the starter motor have come with they had no idea!

Jimbo

 

tough lesson. Yeah, on any new setup I put the bolt in the starter, and see if half of the knurl is exposed, the other half covered by the starter, to check the length.

 

Basically have the same issue with all the replacement starters I have got for my 350/turbo 400 combo. The starter all these have replaced was in there for almost 10 years on that GM Target motor that was installed.. The one that's in there now hasn't been in there for two many miles and is starting that dang noise **** again after the install it sounded great.