I've recently had a little slide off the road in my 87, and for some reason the starter has quit engaging. A year ago, I had a 305 rebuilt from an 80 camaro put into it. I kept the 350 turbo trans, bought a new fly wheel the exact same size as the old one. I've went through 5 duralast starters in the last year, various numbers of shims and they always grind the teeth down. The flywheel's teeth are still there plenty, but the starters all grind down. This last starter I still have is still plenty there teeth wise. I've been lucky on all my other starters when taking them to Autozone, as they all tested to be messed up. This last one tested bad at one store as far as the solenoid goes, but they noticed I had some oil on it and told me to go f myself, so I took it to the one across town after cleaning it. However, there it tested good on everything. I tried putting it back in the truck after thinking maybe hauling it around in the back of a vehicle might have jarred the solenoid loose. But no, it still spins and makes a grinding sound.

As far as this slide off the road I had went, when I went off the road, the curb was maybe 4 inches high. At the time, I happened to have a motor in the back which was weighing me down a little. I was going maybe about 30 and sliding sideways when it happened. This makes me wonder; could I have bent anything out of place? The truck still ran after the incident, I even pulled myself out. It didn't run any different, no unusual knocking, no nothing. It was icy out when I slide off, and it was into grass. So the only impact I would have had would have been the bottom of my truck hitting the curb. Looking at the botom, I didn't see any scratches, no dings, all the teeth on the flywheel are still there.

So, can anyone fathom what may have happened? I'm all out of ideas, unless I moved something just enough to make a difference in the flywheel.

Thanks for any help.

 

make sure everything is connected good. and if that doesnt work take it back to autozone this time pick somebody else that didnt check it befor lol.. i'd done this plenty of times maybe somebody else will chime in and give u some ideas..

 

are the teeth on the flywheel got full wear acroos the teeth?, do you have your old flywheel still? cant remember if you can put them in backwards or not but if the center hub is offset and its in backwards it would put the flywheel to far or to close to the starter

 

if i remember right now lol theres 6 bolts evenly spaced except one and it uses a dowel pin also so you wouldnt be able to put it in backwards

 

Drop the bell housing cover and take a look at how it's working.