Chevy flywheels of flex plates

[cecil misner]

If there are 168 teeth on the flexplate, how many teeth should be on the starter gear? CEEC

[Rolla Hessel]

Ceec, I am not sure how many teeth there are on the starter drive, but there are starters that can be used with both flywheels. You just want to make sure you have to correct bolt pattern, as there are two, the correct bolts becasue some of them have shoulders to center the starter correctly and shims to get the proper distance from the flywheel.

[cecil misner]

Thanks Rolla, There is a typo in the subject line, should read...flywheels or flexplates... These big blocks are drilled for both patterns. Shimming this starter has been an excitement. CEC

[Bob Lemke]

Cecil,

Only the staggered bolt pattern and cast iron nose starter will work with the 168 tooth flexplate.

[Ron Pope]

You know in all my years of building engines. There were a lot of them. I have never had to shim a Chevy starter. Just some food for thought, they don't come with shims from the factory!

[cecil misner]

RPM, That shim thing bugs me. I have never seen a shimmed starter before this. The only idea I have about this is that I put B & M SFI rated flywheel in the car when I got home from Tennessee. Maybe the flywheel is slightly larger in diameter. Whatever the problem, I'm still shimming.

CEEC

[Al Husa]

Hey Ceec!

I have been to that dance -shimmy shimmy - and have a shelf full of starters with broken noses to prove it!

I have a 383 stroker with a 168 tooth flex plate and a straight bore gear drive starter. This summer I had the transmission out of the car and decided to try this thing "one more time". I made a pickle fork out of 1/4 inch hard wood that allowed the starter gear to be held in place on the flex plate ( exactly as is shown in the attached youtube clip) This made it MUCH easier to take the proper measurements!!!!!!!!!!! I was very surprised how many shims it took to arrive at the "paper clip" gap between the starter gear and the flex plater. Somewhere on the net, there is a chart that shows how many thousands of an inch of shim are required to move the starter gear one thousandth of an inch away from the flex plate - it is surprising, to say the least, but the geometry does support the findings!

Another thing - if you do NOT use the GM block to starter motor bracket on the front end of the starter (a common practice with hot rodders) then be sure to use the knurled starter bolts. These bolts have a snugger (is that a word?) fit in the starter's bolt holes, greatly reducing the side to side movement between the starter gear that the flex plate. I bought some starter bolts from my local Napa store and ALSO some chromed bolts from Summit --- the bolts from Summit fit much more snuggly (there is that word again) than the Napa parts (perhaps it is the result of the thickness of the chrome?)

Anyway - good luck - it can be made to happen - the attachment is at the end of this post.

Al aka cornshuck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaJ-67YGfg4

[Gilbert Dixon]

Guess what I am doing for my Holiday weekend Can we say New Flex Plate motors out and going to Reno in the morning to get a new one

[cecil misner]

Gilbert, Cornshuck and all,

This is the present situation. I went to Carquest and got more shims and the knurled bolts The knurled bolts seemed to help a lot, but I need to drop the starter and put in another shim. Deck Officer, no luck on the cast iron nose starter. The engine started several times today, but it grinds occasionally when the engine is warm.

CEEC

[Gilbert Dixon]

Mine was self inflicted the timing was off ( has been for a while ) and would Kick back sometimes I should have set the timing now I have 4 teeth missing in one spot now I have to fix it I just got Lazy and now paying the price