Has anyone who has installed an LT4 starter needed to use shims?

I installed mine and when I went to start up it made a loud clicking noise (louder than the solenoid clicking) that seems to be the pinion banging up against the side of the flywheel. I had only eyeballed the clearance when installing because every other post I've read of people using the LT4 starter has never mentioned making any adjustments. Sure enough, when I pulled the pinion out by hand to measure clearance, it doesn't meet specifications in my manual. Once I get the chance later I guess I'm going to be playing w/ shims; I was just curious to see if I was the only one whose faced this w/ the LT4.

Thanks for any input!

 

I'd make sure it's mounted evenly and not sticking upon one side by a tiny bit. Also check if your clearing the oil pan. Check to see how much play there is with the bolts hand tight and see how loose the starter slides around by wiggling it a lil bit. That will give you a lil idea that you'll need to align the gear a lil more closely when your doing the final bolt up. What I do is pull the gear drive out manually and see how it engages to see if it hits.

 

mine was a straight bolt on , no shims or adjustin needed