camaro81

I had to switch to a 168 tooth flywheel on my '95 Camaro and ended up getting a mini-starter to go along with it and now I'm having trouble getting the starter to properly engage and was wondering if anyone had some insight for me. It's almost as if the gear isn't consistantly turning as it's coming out of the starter, so it's hitting the flywheel instead of engaging with the teeth each time.

When I shimmed it until it consistantly started each time, but it sounded like crap and was contacting the very tip of the flywheel teeth, it would have rounded them off before long.

I read a few threads on this site about starter issues and tried shimming only the side closest to the crank and was able to get it to where it sounded normal when starting, but after 2 or 3 cranks, the gear would just hit the flywheel instead of engaging the teeth.

Could there be somethin wrong with the starter itself or am I missing something?

There isn't a hole in the starter for me to manually force the starter gear out to measure the flywheel clearence and I don't have a remote start button to watch it in action from under the car.

RamAir95TA

Just curious, but why did you have to go with a 168 tooth?

97WS6SCharged

What did the directions for the starter say? I know on my powermaster starter they tell you to shim the starter so you can just fit a bobby pin between the teeth. Anymore or less will cause damage to the starter pinion.

JAKEJR

I don't know about the design of your starter, but on stock type starters I use to be able to apply 12V to the solenoid to cause the drive gear to extend and mesh with the flex-plate but NOT crank the engine.

That allow me to insert a paper clip between the teeth to check the clearance.

Jake

West Point ROCKS! Nation's TOP COLLEGE per Forbes Magazine! Graduation Day Parade 20 May 2010!!!

camaro81

When the rotating assembly for my engine was sent to me, it came with a 168 tooth flywheel that was balanced with the assembly, but I used a 153 tooth anyway just so I wouldn't have to get a new starter. After destroying 2 transmission pump rotors inside of 3 months, I decided to put the correct flywheel on there, it only had a slight vibration with the 153 tooth, but I can't 100% pinpoint the cause of the rotor failures, so I'm gonna eliminate every potential issue I can.
I was pretty sure the starter didnt come with directions, but I dug up the bag of shims that came with the starter to see if there was any directions. The bag had a weird shaped shim in there that I didn't notice when I took it out of the box. The shim was meant to go between the starter itself and the mounting block, to move the gear farther back from the flywheel. After putting that shim in there, the starter now engages every time, no occasionally bangin the back of the flywheel. I guess it just needed more space to extend out of the starter

Thanks for the responses!

Thanks for the responses guys