Originally Posted by dak697

Ok now for completely off the wall. I had a Dually with Big Block and ran into start problems. even chewed up a flex plate it got so bad.

I got it started and took it to my roomates shop (I was tired of messing with it) his guys changed the flex plate and then put it all back together. started it a bunch of times and they thought it was good. then it would act up. Took it back, needs shims blah blah blah. well his guy who thought it would need shims, had about a max of .125 in there and still no help, it would barely engage.

I left them the truck to figure it out. One of the mechanics Dad who is a smart old guy, was in on a Saturday and the guys were bouncing ideas off him. He comes up with this solution .. put a 3/8" washer on the outside bolt and then tighten the inside bolt 1st and then the outside bolt. start it and try it.. the starter sounded perfect. The problem is that the starter to too far away from the flexplate. To fix it properly take the starter out and file the mating surface between the starter and the block flat. You really cannot take too much off because you can always put a shim back in.