[Rich72C10]

That is more or less Chris across the street, my shade tree mechanic! I swear I never remember having a problem swapping out Ford starters and I've done a ton of those in my teens/20s - ha!

Now that I "think" I understand the directions the starter needs to go with shims: if your are teeth are to close together or your hitting the flex plate, whole shims across both bolts. Or if you need to close the gap between the teeth, then shimming only the outside.

For my starter, at most I needed to close the gap. I tried two shims and I could clearly hear things were two close (I didn't re-measure). I then backed up to one 1/64 shim and measured with my paper clip this time and couldn't even get my paperclip in the valley. I then backed up to a 1/32 shim and the paperclip fit perfectly or at least I don't think I could get it closer to perfect.

With the 1/32 in, turning over the engine still sounds squirrely/whiny. I think it is just the starter and how it sounds and not it hitting incorrectly on the flex plate. It has no issues starting the engine, just a bump of the key and she starts up. I also showed the 'no-shim' photos when we were at Coffee & Cars this morning to Chris and he is now thinking the same as me (try a new starter). He is sure he has a starter in his garage - though I'd be surprised it has the correct terminals. Though I know he had a 74 Camaro and it would be the extra one he had for it.