First my setup. 1971, 429 block; 1976, 390 flywheel; and mid 80's 400 bell housing. The problem, a 429/460 starter does not fully engage the ring gear on the 390 flywheel radially (meaning the starter gear is not close enough to the ring gear). I did a search in this forum and found a thread that has the very same problem. Randall-1 states that both flywheels, 429 and 390 have the same diameter. Wildebeast states in the thread that a 390 flywheel won't work with a 460 bellhousing. that thread didn't have a remedy. Threads on this forum tell us to use a 390 flywheel on 460 engines as the 390 clutch is 1 inch bigger than the 460 clutch. Nothing I have read talks about starter problems or remedies. I can always get it to work by using a flaming hacksaw, but don't want to do it if the remedy is a different starter or gear.

Thanks for replies,

 

Try using the starter gear from a 390 starter in your 460 starter this should fix the engagment problems. Eric

 

Here is my setup. 71' 429 block, 390 flywheel for 12" clutch with 176 tooth ring gear (I think, there are two different ones, I have the one with the most teeth), 400M starter which is the same starter used on many other engines, 400M bellhousing from 81' Bronco, and I had the pilot bearing machined down to fit into the deeper step of the crank.

I have absolutely no starter problems as of yet, and the engagement and operation sounds like a million bucks. If your setup is identical, I see no reason it woldn't work. I would be absolutely sure that your starter is OK as it is possible for it to spin without engaging the starter drive. It is also possible for the pull in or/and hold in windings may be bad. Also you probably already know, but be sure that there ane no missing teeth on the ring gear.

This is all I can think of for now, let me know what happens.

 

im using a 400m bellhousing and a 360-390 flywheel (184 tooth) and my meshes a little hard for my liking, it took the teeth out of my last ring gear on the startup position. The 400 has 180 teeth but the starter gear is the same for both,other than ovaling out the bottom hole to fix that problem(which i tried ,did not work ). i otherwise have nothing for info to help but if i find anything else ill pass it on to you.