No engagement - spinning on key turn- Wrong starter for application Auto starters are 1/2" longer than stick shift The stick starter has a shorter nose and the flywheel ring gear is closer to the engine than the ring gear on the automatic. Harbit May2001 ---------- Check the starter and make sure that the bendix fully extends. Remove the starter and connect it to a battery briefly and see if the bendix unit is driven out. Once the bendix is out, it should remain out. Try to reinstall and see if it meshes with the ring gear. 3. A good possibulity is if your converter is a rebuilt it may have the wrong ring gear on it. You will need to count the teeth on the converter and compare it to a known good converter. The rebuilder may have replaced the gear with an incorrect one. (Ed note: ring gears on Stude Converters are welded on) 4. I have to assume that by aligning the converter you mean centering the bell housing to the back of the engine. This is usually done when you change either the engine block or bell housing, but in any case I have never seen one so far off the starter wouldn't engage. Crall May 2001) ---------- Avanti II - GM Starter problems Jim, Possibly a bad battery ground. Very likely the solenoid as others have stated. I would take it off the starter and take the phenolic cap off the back (carefully). Flat file and clean the two big copper contacts (one stays with the cap the other, be careful handling it when filing). Last, take the big steel washer and reverse it so it now a clean side is facing the copper contacts. Better yet, look for a copper one at an auto flea market. Years ago, these big washers use to be made of copper (before solenoids were C. I.ed to death). Maybe you can find one at a venders spot (I did). Copper is better. Avanti, Jim Frakes The starter gear is disengaging from the flywheel before the engine starts on my '64. I load tested the battery and checked the cable connections. What should I look at next? Do I need to get a rebuilt starter? Scott Isensee ----------------------------------------------------------------- Scott: It sounds like the Bendix drive on your starter is bad.... new Bendix/ starter drives are available from almost all auto parts stores, probably about $30; you must remove the starter and partially disassemble it to change the starter drive, but it's not too hard. Lew ----------------------------------------------------------------- Scott, It sounds like you need a new starter drive(Bendix). This should be available from most starter/generator rebuilding shops. Stude. part no.1550373, Borg Warner SD593, Niehoff SD15 Bob Ziff ----------------------------------------------------------------- Check your starter solenoid and Bendix (the drive gear on the end of the starter). A bad solenoid might not "hold" long enough due to inadequate voltage due to a loose terminal or bad contact inside the solenoid. A bad Bendix will pull the motor for a moment, but then the "one way clutch" built into it will break loose, and it will sound like the starter "kicked out", as it is supposed to do when the motor starts. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Scott, I had exactly this problem on my '63, 4-speed. The Bendix would disengage just at the engine was about to start. I ignored this condition until the starter eventually jammed into the ring gear Hopefully all you need is a new Bendix. Not in my case, I removed the starter, the ring gear teeth were chewed up in several places. I would sug= gest you mark your flywheel and rotate it with a screwdriver or something 360= =B0 and look at the teeth on the gear. My Bendix teeth looked OK. I extended Bendi= x gear to its full travel and measured its distance to the machined face of = the starter nose. Then I measured the distance from the starter bellhousing to= the ring gear. Measurements indicated that I was only ever getting about 1/4" engagement into the ring gear plus the Bendix gear teeth have a radius on = them which made a bad situation worse. I ended up machining .100 off the face = of the starter nose, allowing the Bendix to be .100 closer to the ring gear. Later I learned that it is possible to machine a little off a part in the Bendix and achieve another .100 deeper for the gear. I did this and the combination gave me .200 total, I never had any more trouble. If you want= to modify the Bendix I'll have to look up the article. I don't have it handy.= Before you just replace your Bendix, I would recommend you take some measurements. Hope this helps, Avanti. Jim Frakes ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------