Good morning everyone,

I have some starter problems that I hope someone can help with.

My 70 Chevelle has a 69 396 block with a turbo 400 transmission and ever since I bought it I have always had starter problems. The starter grinds at the flexplate and eventually trashes the starter and the flexplate. I am using the 168 tooth flexplate, the correct knurled bolts and the back brace. I have used both cast iron and aluminum nosed starters with the staggered pattern. I took the solenoid off last night and pushed the starter gear into the flexplate and it actually looks like the starter is too far away from the block. Is this possible and would shimming fix it? The motor is freshly rebuilt and I would rather not tear anything up while cranking the motor to get it started.

My second question has to do with the wiring harness for this car. The solenoid has three terminals, one large one, a S terminal and a R terminal. How many wires should come out of the harness and where do they go on the starter? My harness was cut to pieces years ago so I'd like to figure out how this all works so I can get this car started!!

Thank you and as always, any help is appreciated!!

More than likely your started is to far the flexplate. The distance between the tip of the starter gears and the flexplate groves should be about the size of a paperclip. Your local parts store will carry the shims, and there should be instructions on how to shim the starter. I believe to get the gears closer, you'll need to chop the shims in half and put them on the side furthest from the engine (right side). If your flexplate's gears are damaged at all, I'd replace that as well. Take your time, pop out the starter gears with every shim you change, and get it perfect. I've thrown a lot of money away on starters and flexplates. I can't give you any info on the wiring. My chevelle has got 3 wires going to the starter, while my 48 chevy has got only two going to it (I used an EZ Wiring Harness for GMs) and it works fine. Hope I could help,

Tony,
regarding the wiring, if your car is stock and using the points distributor and coil you will have
1 purple wire (thicker of the two small wires) that goes to the "S" terminal on the solenoid for the starter to crank.

1 yellow wire (thinner of the two small wires) that goes to the "R" terminal..this is a bypass wire that delivers power to the coil when the starter is cranking. This wire is only needed if you have the stock setup. If you are running an HEI and have run a 12v switched line to the HEI coil then you do not have to hook the yellow wire up to the solenoid. It can be discarded along with the original resistance wire that also fed the stock coil.

The battery + cable hooks to the large lug on the solenoid, so the harness only has the above mentioned two wires. This is for 1971 and older cars.

Chris,

Got the starter shims last night and am preparing to do this either tonight or Thursday. The shims didn't come with any instructions for cutting them and I looked at two different packs. Do you recommmend cutting them at any specific point or just in half? I assume you've done this before so the tips are appreciated!! The starter and flexplate are new so I want to get this right the first time.

Dave,

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. I'm assuming that the purple wire supplies 12 volts to the solenoid when the key is turned to the start position, engaging the solenoid. Is this right? I would like to test everything out before throwing it all together as I've had alot of starting problems unfortunately.

Thanks again guys!!

Yes, the purple wire gets power from the ignition switch VIA the neutral safety switch when in the "start" position.

http://macc.chevelles.net/images/starter2.jpg
http://macc.chevelles.net/images/starter.jpg

Not sure about big blocks but I had to file down the top of the starter (where the starter meets the block)a little bit on an aluminum nose small block starter one time.

It shouldn't matter too much where you cut the shims. Obviously the shorter you cut them, the degree of the starter will be increased, which will move your starter gear closer to the flexplate. I'm not sure even if you'd be able to tell much difference between halfway cut or a shorter cut than that. I cut mine about 1 1/2 inches long.