Bob's 57 is on the road again.

[57AGIN]

Well it is now nearly 4 months since my 57 was last on the road.  It was last seen at the John Force Holiday Show.  When all was said and done, two new pistons, ring & bearings, the heads & intake manifold ported & polished, a new thermostat housing with the heater bypass closed off, new high torque stainless hose clamps for the CoolFlex coolant hoses, two new starter motors and a 3/8" spacer plate for the 2nd replacement starter and a set of the new Fel-Pro gaskets with the metal bolt hole spacers the 57's running again.  Without Rick Crawfords expert mechanics knowledge, tools and help it would have taken years, not months.  What a great friend!!! 

Why two new starters?  Since putting the 351W into the 57, it has had four new starters. Originally, I put a special hi-torque starter I got through Jegs.  It lasted about a year.  Not wanting to take the car off the road, at that time, I went to a local shop and got a replacement re manufactured starter for about 1/3 the price of the hi-torque starter.  This one lasted three years, without a problem.  When Rick and I finished putting the engine back together, we bumped the engine over numerous times to adjust the valves (without plugs installed).  We then put the plugs in and tried to start the engine.  The starter locked up and died.  We pulled that three year old starter out, the teeth on the gear were stripped, We replaced it with the same type and part number starter.  We got the engine started, then tried to time it.  Because I use a MSD ignition system (MSD6AL & MSD distributor) Rick's timing light couldn't get an accurate reading, so we started rotating the distributor, one tooth at a time, and turned the engine by ear.  When we finally got the engine running smoothly (it sounded great) we let it run for about 1/2 hour to get everything up to temperature.  All of a sudden  we heard a loud screeching coming out of the engine.  We shut it down and tried to figure out what could have happened.  After a couple of frustrating hours we called it a day and I arranged to have another friend come over the next day with his engine stethescope.  We fired up the engine, got the same loud screeching and narrowed it down to the new starter or flywheel.  After pulling starter #3 out we found the front of the Bendix gear housing was being ground down by rubbing against the flywheel.  We measured the space between the flywheel and the engine block plate (approx 1/8").  Then measuring the Bendix gear we found the we needed at least 3/8" more spacing for the Bendix gear to spring back clear of the flywheel ring gear.  Why this wasn't a problem for the Hi-torque starter or starter #2 is a mystery.  The flywheel is a Centerforce aftermarket flywheel built specifically for stick shift 351W applications and according to a knowledgable engine builder the Centerforce flywheel cannot be installed backward.  We haven't a clue why the flywheel to block plate spacing is so small or if this is normal why additional Bendix gear clearance is needed, but it works fine now and I guess all we can do is see how long this starter lasts.  Anyone that can provide us a clue as to this problem please feel free to post us a reply.

Anyway, it's great to be up and running again.

Bob
57AGIN

[JPotter57]

Bob, I had to make a starter shim, for mine, though I found out later you can buy them from Autozone.  I did this because the starter bendix was not disengaging from the ring gear.  I couldnt tell it with open headers, but when I had the muffler shop put on pipes for me, when I cranked it, I heard the same noise you are describing, hence the 3 oem gear reduction (late mustang) starters, then finally the Tilton I ended up with.  Once I shimmed it, the bendix would disengage like its supposed to, and no more problem.  Try it out.  Oh yeah, it will eat the teeth off your expensive new flywheel too.  2 billet SFI flywheels to find that out.  I also elongated the mounting holes to move the starter away from the ring gear by about 1/16 inch or so.  Never had another problem with the starter after that.

[shopratwoody]

Sounds like not much more could have gone wrong. Glad you guys got it all fixed.