Starter, Flex Plate Help

[camrat68]

The problem is that we're not quite sure what you're asking.

If you're standing on the passengers side of the car and looking at the flex plate edge-on, are you expecting the starter gear to move out and mesh with the ring gear on the flex plate evenly without one being left or right of the other? Every BBC I've worked on only engages to about 3/4 depth.

If you're standing at the back of the car looking at the flex plate and the distance between the starter gear tooth at the bottom between the ring gear teeth and flex plate is greater than .035 with no shims and no paint on the block mounting surface, then you would need to mill down the starter mount. Don't touch the block. If it's less than .025, then add shims to bring it farther away from the gear and block.



One thing to keep in mind is that the starter bolts correctly located the OEM starter but aftermarket starters have oversize mounting holes allowing huge differences in where it sits after you tighten the bolts. BBC's vibrate everything loose over time and mine tends to shift forward over time if torqued to spec. When I make it "Gorilla tight" I don't have any issues.

-Jim