see if you can engage it by hand and stick a big paperclip in between the bendix and flywheel. if real tight it probably needs shimming. check it at a couple places on flywheel. i want to think there might be a problem with the flywheel.

 

the gear disengages after starting and the motor turns over by hand just fine. i'm gona try the igniton switch then if that doesn't work then i'm gona pull the opti and the hub.

 

My factory starter did exactly that 5 or so years ago....it still cranked over though.

 

If the engine turns over by hand and the starter is disengaging, then your problem has to be the hub/opti. Not sure if it's possible to have it "out of time" so to speak like on older vehicles. If old SBC distributors are too far out of time, it'll bind the engine and make a god awful sound, I've broken a starter and stripped a few teeth on a flywheel this way on my 83 C10. Is it possible to have the opti 180* out on the LT1? If so, I'd guess that's your problem.

 

changed out he ignition switch and started right up. thanks for all the help!

 

I haven't actually tried this myself but my mechanic said that it's the flywheel. Should it be easy to turn the flywheel by hand? If it is binded, is it a possibility that something else could be frozen in the engine. the car has ran fine until a couple of times I have peeled out recently. I notice that when I would creep up to a stop...the car was lobbing a little more than before. The engine has been well maintained but has 143,000 miles on it. I have broken off the starter housing just like in that picture twice. The last starter that broke...I turned the egnition and I could hear a loud chunk as if something couldn't turn. I stopped...turned the key again and that's when the loud winding started and I knew that I had cracked the starter housing. Any suggestions on how to properly diagnose this and a rough estimate to what I will be paying to fix it?