Thread: Trying to find the right starter

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Chevy starters seem to be the subject of a lot of questions. I never had this problem with Ford, or Olds, or any engine I have ever played with but the starter on my 350 engine is still not right.

The first starter I had was one of the costly Powermaster 9000 gear reduction units. Right out of the box it would make horrible sounds as it meshed with the flexplate. I called Powermaster and they told me I should have 15/16 inch clearance from the backside of the flexplate to the centerline of the mounting bolts. I had less than 7/8, so we built a shim to move the starter back an 1/8 inch. That worked for about 2 years and then the starter took a couple of chips out of my flexplate teeth, so I put that starter in the trash and ordered a plain old Chevy starter from Summit and put it on.

It worked, but sounded like it needed shimmed so I did that and it was working ok.........but just OK...........it still didn't sound quite right. When we got home from Turkey Run I went to move the T into the garage and the starter stayed engaged with the flexplate, even with the key off, so the motor sat there spinning over. Don whacked it with a hammer and it stopped.

The other night I was reading a Speedway catalog, and they sell a set of round spacers in there that go between the flexplate and the crankshaft to move the starter back. The writeup said if you don't use these and get the proper dimension YOU WILL HAVE STARTER PROBLEMS. I never knew these existed and simply bolted my flexplate to the crank like I would do with any Ford, etc engine. So I guess at some point I will pull the engine on my T, install the shims and a brand new flexplate (one with no chipped teeth) and see if that clears up the problem.

Here is a picture of the shims Speedway sells.

Don