Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Machining starter motor nose?

Bobs_Place · Vice President

jim larson wrote:
Can this be done? Would like to machine the nose mounting surface from 0 to let’s say 0.100. That’s about what I had to shim only the outer bolt on my starter nose to get the starter teeth to engage the flexplate ring gear. Don’t buy an ATI flexplate.

Has the block been line bored?

If so, how much.

Have you checked for clearance between the starter nose and trans case.

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Bobs_Place wrote:
jim larson wrote:
Can this be done? Would like to machine the nose mounting surface from 0 to let’s say 0.100. That’s about what I had to shim only the outer bolt on my starter nose to get the starter teeth to engage the flexplate ring gear. Don’t buy an ATI flexplate.
Has the block been line bored?
If so, how much.
Have you checked for clearance between the starter nose and trans case.

Block has not been line bored. Clearance has only been visually checked by my mechanic friend both with and without shims on outside bolt only. I would just click the starter and starter tech would engage in ring gear but not pop out, and then Duane would check the teeth to see if they were where they should be, we did this about half a dozen times. Then I did the same thing but hold the ignition in the start position for 4 seconds and the starter would engage and spin the flexplate for the 4 seconds. Then I started the car six times.

Duane said this was the only fix unless I got a accurately machined flexplate. Or a starter from the year the block was manufactured. He does not like the fix and maybe I should consider having the starter nose machined.