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Starting to lose it - frickin mini starter and flexplate

4K views 44 replies 16 participants last post by  Mr.Chev 
#1 · (Edited)
I don't get it, flat don't get it. We have multiple race cars. All of them have hi-buck flexplates and various starters. Three of them you hit the starter button and it's like starting a regular street car. But this one, this sob eats everything you throw at it and it's not timing either, 31 degrees. I'm about ready to buy the cheapest damned junk I can find and throw in there and see if that fixes it but I'm so tired of screwing with this stuff, I'm ready to roll it out and burn the damned thing!

Rant over.
 
#2 ·
.

Is it a tunnel ram???
When I started switching my stuff to tunnel rams, I had one engine that kept eating the teeth.
I used a start retard to knock the timing back to ~25* and never had an issue again.

Sometimes it doesn't make sense, you just have to keep plugging away.

Good luck!!

.
 
#8 ·
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If you take a flexplate & starter from one running engine & stick them on this freak ass combination,
I'm going to suggest something is wrong with the block???
Crank has been moved, starter pad has been cut, holes drilled of a **** hair, something is off enough to put high stress on the teeth??

.
 
#9 ·
How about giving us the low down so maybe we can offer you some tips / help ?
 
#10 ·
Let's see the numbers OP !!

Vertical clearance and horizontal engagement numbers !!!
 
#13 ·
Try and find one with a leading edge, a beveled tooth of the flexplate like a Mezinger. I had issues until I tried one of theirs. You wont find a factory oem flexplate without beveled starter ramps, but all the race stuff( except the good ones) just incorporate a blunt tooth.
 
#16 ·
I had that problem with a Dart Big M block for a while. It would eat starters and flex plate teeth like crazy. Brand new Powermaster Ultra starter it blew a tooth right off it. The engagement was off - too much clearance even with no shims. I called Powermaster and they had me ship the starter back to them with my measurements. They bridgeport milled I think about .020 - .030ish off the starter and then it fit perfectly. Had the perfect tooth contact then with the flex plate . About a thin coat hanger clearance. They said they see that issue all the time with aftermarket blocks. Aftermarket block tooling wears out, and that starter pad ends up not so perfect. The OE blocks maintain that dimension with less variation. Now I've had that same starter on for about 5 years working perfectly.
 
#18 ·
I use a drill bit to check clearance. And yes, I have heard of many people with aftermarket block have to take their starter apart and have the mounting block milled down. Guess if you were to simply have .060 to .100 removed you could always shim it away if need be. I always check this stuff on the engine stand with no headers in the way and then crank it with a good battery!
 
#20 ·
Getting the vertical clearance right can be a bitch.
On my GM Sportsman Bowtie block, I had to mill .100 off the tops off both my starter's mounting blocks.
 
#22 ·
I have done them like that before, but I read that the clearance is supposed to be checked on the side of the pinion tooth to the wall of the flexplate tooth. Without redoing your pic, that area just below the thin arrow. I looked over the who setup and started over again and ended up putting two shims in to get clearance using a standard paper clip which measured .020. It's better but still noisier than I would like but if I go tighter, I am thinking it might drag a bit and if I loosen it up, it might be like it was before where it literally refused to engage at times. The flexplate has a couple hits in it but nothing horrible (I dressed those real easy with a fine file) and the starter drive was in better shape than I thought.
 
#28 ·
Do you have a big oil pan with a kick out. Make sure the starter is not up against the pan causing some misalignment or the header jammed up against it. The real starter bolts has a knurled portion on the bolt to mate with the counter bored holes for the starter in the block. If you are using hardware bolts that could be an issue with misalignment. Just some more stuff to look at.
 
#36 ·
We use the solenoid on all of them, this one is no different. The engine spins and fires, I just think it's still a bit noisy. I always use a #10 wire for the jumper on the starter solenoid - never had a power issue. Also this car has two starter buttons, one next to the ignition toggle and another on the firewall. Either one spinning the starter makes the same noise. I might have some time to look at it again tomorrow and I'll see if .035 is the trick or not.
 
#42 ·
Either the vertical clearance or the horizontal engagement depth aren't optimal or there is some other mechanical or electrical issue going on here.
 
#43 ·
Been really busy so haven't had a chance to check the .035 deal yet. But to answer you question I do know that there are a couple of different pinion gears both of them with the same tooth count so I couldn't really say that .035 at one point would be equal to .035 at the other. I will check that of course.
 
#44 ·
No point really, what little bit there was to the flexplate I smoothed off with a couple of passes of a fine file. The pinion on the starter has one tooth on the leading edge that has a .0001 mark on it, can't really see it without a strong light.
 
#45 ·
I had a new sfi flexplate and mini starter, once started it made a hell of a racket, turns out the ***** who made it did not have the ring gear in the right spot when it was welded, it was always slightly engaged, took out and returned, we checked against a know good one and laying flat you could see the disparagement between the too, the bad one was offset wrong.
 
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