[larrylarry1]

85 chevy 350 from suburban bolting up to turba 350 in a 77 chevy pu "T total P.O.S." 4 ba 4...

Delt with some of this "SBC starter engagment" action years ago and the vehicles went away(thank god) so I never got to the bottom of it in my mind...

Well, Low-and-behold here I go again...And this engine is not going into this rust bucket with a starter/flywheel combo which is damaging itself with every turn of the pinion...

..After many parts..I.E. cheapy fly wheel ,cheapy starters from different source,"new" starters from different source... $450 dollar rebuildable "Reactor Prods." flywheel/ring gear from Renezeders trophy truck,Fancy mini Starter from Trophy Truck,(thanks Mike) OEM ring gear (new) Shims to infinity and beyond...

After all this I finally arrived at the fact that whatever bad arse or cheap P.O.S. starter I use,it is gonna have to be congruent with the ring gear... Here is a pic of my current solution which is finally allowing starter pinion gear to fly all the way in and fly all the way out all by itself...The boss which starter mounts is distorted so is just null as any kind of point of reference...

Now,I aint sayin' this is a answer or "the" answer by any means...Or that this design is refined...It is my first go at this silly sbc start engagement issue that is not allowing me to live life to its fullest...This is just where I have arrived...7:30pm - 12:30pm from idea to a functional alignment device...The design elements are so basic(form follows function) I would have to move to a circular clamp style mount which encompasses the starter body in a more ideal mount point(on the starter) even though this mount point has better leverage,but the mount on those 2 studs makes me skeered... Please tear it apart,i HAVE THICK SKIN AND WOULD BE SO STOKED TO HEAR (oops) not shouting......and see some ideas that blow this current design out of the water...Fire Away...

Funny,folks who have "never heard of" or "have never delt with" this issue are just going wth is that thingy for...whoda hada wada huh?

finished for today Lawrence

[F-BIRD'88]

Many people don't realize that all GM OEM factory starters came with and require a rear starter support bracket brace to support the rear of the starter motor.
The two starter bolts are not enough to support the starter by them selves.
As soon as you use the starter without the rear bracket installed as GM designed it, your troubles will start. Eventually the starter will twist and either bust the starter nose or rip the bolts threads right out of the block.

The OEM required bracket brace is about $10 at any GM dealer parts counter.

SBC, BBC, OLDS, Buick , Pontiac, V8 6 cylinder are all simular but all unique.
All the motors came with one, all require it or you will get starter motor trouble.

Why the aftermarket mini starters do not have a similar rear bracket support brace, I don't know. They have the same tortional twist issue that puts excessive twist on the two starter bolts without the brace installed.
Of course nothing stopping someone from fabricating up their own, as you have.

[Greg T]

I've never used one, even in my high compression mills. Never had a problem and they always run forever.

[68NovaSS]

x2 what Greg said, for over 40 years, stock, high compression, blower motors, stock and high torque mini starters, never had a problem when they were properly aligned using the correct bolts.

None of my new cars from the early days had braces, including a new '65 GTO, '74 Suburban 454.

[larrylarry1]

Soooooo, today I was still not pleased with the procedure i was using to align this starter. With the ring gear bolted on and the solenoid removed, I was having the issue of the starter pinion gear twisting as it is supposed to as it shifts into the ring gear.Butt the starter motor not turning with it and the resistance of theengine(even without the plugs in) was to great to really get it right...

Sooooo,I un bolted the fly wheel and just held it snug up against the crank and this allowed me to get an accurate backlash reading that I am confident with.

I guess the 3 shim limit Autozone recommends was not gonna be quit enough...I ended up with a custom 1/4 inch shim from flat stock. I duno uhhh .030 - .250....sumpin still aint right?

And being able to incrementally adjust the tail up/down in/out to a rigid state was theee ***'s wiggle...

I have a 92 1500 pu out in the lot that is having the same issue...You can see the metal a flyin' as the starter spins the engine...What should I do with that one?just hang the starter and let it fly to only come back inside of 6 months chewed...

Time to go set this mill in th hole...Over and out. Lawrence