Help! Same starter screech problem!

[69_ranger]

Ok. Doing a mechanical restoration on my 69 Ranger 360 with C6. Rebuilt engine and tranny back in the truck. I decided to put the starter on before continuing assembly to see if I still had the screech/grind noise and I did. Long story shortened, after much head scratching, I painted the flex plate gears and starter gears and spun the starter. Then I looked at the paint to see what was rubbed off. The starter gear is barely catching the top of the flexplate gear but is grabbing just enough to turn the engine without skipping. I called the local starter repair shop and all he new is that he heard a while back that if you put a different tranny in these trucks this will happen sometimes. Didn't make sense to me. It is the stock 360 block, the tranny numbers decode as a 1968 C6. It is the 184 tooth flexplate with the 3-bolt ford starter(remanned from Autozone). Why does it look like the starter needs to be closer to the flexplate in order to engage better? Any help is appreciated.

Side Note: The truck was doing this same noise when I bought this truck barely running. With rebuild has brand new flexplate. Double and triple checked for proper torque converter alignment and seating, etc. Everything looks perfect but something is not.

[69_ranger]

Another question to add to previous...On the FE engines, is there different starters for auto and manual trannys?

[SoCal250]

I had the opposite problem that is strange I found that 66 and earlier had a long shaft starter and 66 up had a short shaft starter I installed a 184 tooth pioneer heavy duty flexplate and I bought a Tuff stuff starter from jegs and when I started it it hit my flywheel at idle made a terrible noise I had to put 3 lock washers to bring it out so it won't hit my flexplate it works though sounds like you have the shorty but they said that was for a 162 or somwere around there flexplate , the problem is stuff just don't fit anymore period here's a link to the thread I read it in I would take starter back or count the teeth on your flexplate see if you need the long shaft....

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ww ... c_wdC14p-h

[69_ranger]

Thanks for that...I took the starter back to Autozone and went to another local parts house and bought another brand. Put it on and same screeching noise while spinning the engine. Its not the starter. I have the 184 tooth flexplate that is 15 1/2 inches diameter including ring gear. The starter appears to be extending the gear out the correct distance but the starter gear is just barely catching the top of the flexplate gear. Don't know my next step. May be try to machine on the starter bolt holes to move the starter closer to the engine about 1/8 inch so it will grab more of the flexplate gear. Lost.

[sargentrs]

I've been trying to find where I saw it but I can't seem to find it again. I could have sworn I read somewhere that there were 2 diameter flexplates. An 11" and an 11-1/2". I could be wrong though. Anybody else know?

[M-100]

I had a similar problem with a 302. Turns out the hole in the engine plate (where the starter goes) was to big by only 3 thousands of an inch. I changed the engine plate and so far so good.

[Gray035]

I had a newly rebuilt starter that screeched against the flywheel gear from the moment I installed it. Turned out that it was a faulty rebuild (old solenoid I'm guessing), and a new one solved the problem.