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Did you double check the angle of the starter?
The starter drive teeth have to be square to the flywheel/flexplate teeth.
If they're not square to each other, the air gap spacing won't mean a thing.
Also make sure the new starter is the correct tooth pattern for the amount of teeth on the flexplate.
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The bolt holes don't allow any wiggle room, so it's as square as the machining will allow. As I understand it, the angled bolt starters are for the 168 tooth flexplate, while the inline bolt starters are for the 153 tooth flexplate. I couldn't find 153 tooth angled bolt starters, nor 168 tooth inline bolt starters.