454 Eating Starters Help!!!

I have a 1997 CHevy 2500 with a 454 big block. Due to gas prices it was parked for a few weeks. Prior to parking it the truck had been dragging when you would crank so we knew the starter was going out. When we got the new starter once taking it off a piece of the bendex was missing. My husband found a chewed up bolt in the fly wheel. Once we got the new starter on it we tried to crank it several times and it was trying to fire up when we heard a loud KATCHING and then free spinning. A friend finally fixed it for us and it fired right up after a few tries we drove about 5 -10 miles to his parents when the transmission line came undone and it was parked for a few more weeks. We fixed the line and got a new battery tried to crank it it acted like the battery was weak, And all of a sudden the starter is free spinning again. What could be causing the starter to keep breaking.

big block are hard on starters and alot of the time it has to do with 3 things. new starter not set up right you need to set air gap from the bendix to fly wheel.This should be check before any shims are added. there has been times when the starter was not up in the fly wheel teeth. shiming down at this point makes for a bigger problem then it will take the teeth off the bendix. starter bendix going in to far or not far enough . the starter not built with hi grade parts . there is other things like poor battery bad battery cables +and - need to be check for rot . no front strap on the starter that keeps the starter from moveing side to side under the cranking load. not using the starter bolt. a fly wheel with bad teeth .running to much timming. if you run this list down and check and fix then you will not have any starter problems:D i have some start problems with the bbc but they all have stop. i take my time and check all that i posted :3dSMILE: