starter wont engage

[dans76sport]

buddy of mine has a 71 duster, it wont crank. the starter bendix does not engage into the flywheel. And when it does it gets stuck in the flywheel. I had to pry the bendix out of the ring gear the other day. Any body ever had to shim a small block starter? It is a 412 stroker with a 727.

[ehostler]

Replace the starter as it is dying/dead.

[jelsr]

Something you might check is the clearance on the pinion. The starter can be moved a little due to the large hole in one of the mounting ears. Just snug the bolt for the smaller hole and see how much you can move the starter to and from the ring gear, it will surprise you. On my brothers circle burner I had to rat tail file the large hole a little bit more to get clearance so it would crank when hot.

[moparmotorman]

when i put a tilton superstarter on my 4 spd cuda about 10 yrs ago, i had to do what jeslr said . i elongated the starter mounting hole, the starter wouldn't engage till i did this. 10 yrs later that starter died, now i have a mopar mini starter. no prblem with that.

[ehostler]

Alright, so it appears that I may have been wrong. It's just that the only 2 starters that have done that to me had been working flawlessly and then the problem started. The problem on both turned out to be a failing solenoid/bendix assembly.

[skankweirdall]

Well, let's ask the pertinent questions first.

What kind and brand of starter is this?

Torque converter?

Is this a new problem that just started after replacing an engine, tranny, or torque converter?

Or is it a new development on an already running combo?

Is the starter loose?