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I was getting a little friction from the flexplate when I reinstalled the starter and rotated the motor by hand. The remanufactured starter is hitting the flexplate. Apparently this is a somewhat common problem as I found several pics online of similar damage to starters on FE motors. Here's mine::
So, TC was installed and bolted to the flexplate correctly and the spacer plate was fine. I'm guessing there is enough play in the alignment that it can rotate slightly and hit the FP.
Oh yeah, this thing's gettin hit with the grinder.
I'm just relieved it was this simple.
EDIT: hit it with the grinder, installed it and now it clears the flexplate. Don't know why, but apparently it's possible to buy a starter for these motors that will bolt up but still interferes with the flexplate or flywheel.
I had an alignment pin missing from an engine it put the starter in the wrong spot and caused something like that
Also the holes on the starter are a bit oversized if it was spun clockwise enough that could do that maybe you could try rotating it a bit counter clockwise my guess is that's probably not what caused that because it shouldn't have that much play
Also the holes on the starter are a bit oversized if it was spun clockwise enough that could do that maybe you could try rotating it a bit counter clockwise my guess is that's probably not what caused that because it shouldn't have that much play
I checked for play while I was bolting it back in and there was plenty. Just looking for other examples of this problem with an image search tuned up a fair bit of variation from one brand to another, so it's easy to see how tolerances could be a bit loose.
As far as I can tell, this is the only explanation for why this wasn't a problem before with the same starter.
