Starter shims

Red 409 63 impala

Well Known Member
63;409 with a 552 bell housing. I think I need to shim the starter, because I noticed that after kicking the starter the starter drive stays engaged. If I poke a screwdriver it quickly disengages. Looking through various catalogs I see shims but they all look to be for block mounted starters. The various videos all deal with block mounted starters, not bell housing mounted starters. Anyone ever shimmed a bell housing mounted starter?
 

tenxal

Well Known Member
Back when, I've gotten around that issue by shimming the starter forward. This limits the depth the drive can go into the flywheel teeth. In fact, Chevrolet used to offer a service package of shims just for this purpose. There was also a heavy duty solenoid spring (1978281) that helped this issue, as well. That spring has been discontinued...might be available but who knows. The current heavy duty spring is the 1958679, I believe. It's shorter and stiffer than the originals.

I'd go ghetto and stick a 1/16"-1/8" washer between the starter and each of the mounting holes and see if it helps.
 
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Red 409 63 impala

Well Known Member
I checked the bellhousing clocking max run out .006. I put lubricant on the bender drive shaft. Checked it a couple of times looks ok. Really did not want to pull the starter because I would have to remove the exhaust manifold.
 
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