Can any of you Archie swap guys help me? I have an old non-Archie swap kit that mounts the starter just like Archie's kit does. I have had enormous difficulty getting the starter aligned properly- so much so that I had to pull the engine to replace the ring gear on the flywheel. After I get that done (and replace the starter pinion), I need to get it properly aligned. Can someone walk me through this? I don't have any instructions or videos to go by. As I said before, this is NOT an Archie kit, therefore I am on my own.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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1986 SE 350 V8

When I set mine up (ie: drilled mount holes) I followed some instructions sent to me from the starter vendor! He had printed out something stating that you needed to space it 60 thou. from the ring gear!!! I thought,. 60 thou, how do I measure that? The next sentence suggested that a standard size paper clip is 60 thou!!! I simply ty-rapped the starter gear in its RUN position and placed the the paper clip inbetween, clamped it up and drilled the holes
good luck,
Sandy

[This message has been edited by cowans (edited 06-06-2005).]

I used needle nose vice grips to pull out the starter gear. Then did the same as cowens.
I haven't started mine, but I did crank it over to do a compression test, check for some oil flow, etc.

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SSFiero@Aol.com
Yellow Formula Signature

• 88 Yellow FORMULA-ZZ3 HSR, 345hp, 390lb-ft. Est to be done one of these days.
  
• V8 buildup thread
  
• My Shower Cam
  
• At mile 20 I thought I was dead At mile 22 I wished I was dead At mile 24 I knew I was dead At mile 26.2 I realized I had become too tough to kill

If you remove the solenoid you can pull the gear out easier. Mock it up and then replace the solenoid and reinstall it.I always used a coat hanger to set my starter pinion depth. The small ones are about .060. The coat hanger goes in between the point of the pinoin gear and the bottom between two teeth on the ring gear. Also make sure your gear extends out far enough to engage all of the ring gear. The hardest part is making sure that the starter is straight and not angled in relationship to the ring gear so that the gear teeth run flat against each other.

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'84 SE 350 5 speed (isuzu)
'69 GTO 400 4 speed

quote Originally posted by cowans: When I set mine up (ie: drilled mount holes) I followed some instructions sent to me from the starter vendor! He had printed out something stating that you needed to space it 60 thou. from the ring gear!!! I thought,. 60 thou, how do I measure that? The next sentence suggested that a standard size paper clip is 60 thou!!! I simply ty-rapped the starter gear in its RUN position and placed the the paper clip inbetween, clamped it up and drilled the holes good luck, Sandy

That's pretty much what Archie's installation video states as well - a standard paperclip.

Tim,
What starter are you using now? Are you using the PM again?

Russ

quote Originally posted by MinnGreenGT: That's pretty much what Archie's installation video states as well - a standard paperclip.

That's what I used. I took the mounting block and pinion out of the starter and bolted it up and kept adjusting it a little at a time. Finally I got it to where the extended pinion gear would snugly hold the paperclip in place and torqued it all down there.

quote Originally posted by Russ544: Tim, What starter are you using now? Are you using the PM again? Russ

Yes. I rebuilt it and was still having problems, so I suspected a bad ring gear. I got it all apart last night and discovered unimaginable carnage in that area. I will be replacing both the ring rear and the starter pinion as well as re-aligning the starter.

Thanks for all of the replies!!

In the Archie kit I received was a Proform high torque starter. Those instructions said to set the gear between .020 & .045. I set it toward the tighter side because I figure there is going to be some bushing wear on the starter gear in the future. The Proform starter is pre-drilled for mounting so you don't have alignment problems. But I did try to check the alignment by putting the flat side of a straight edge on the end of the starter gear and just eye-balled it to see if the straight edge was parallel with the inside of the flywheel. Double check to make sure that the starter is not touching the oil filter conversion cover or the 90 deg. fitting that comes out of it. That was a problem that I had to solve with some judicious grinding with a cut off wheel.

PM sent

Thanks, tripple8. Big plus coming your way.

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1986 SE 350 V8

goody box arrive yet?

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1988 Coupe
327 v8
No longer insane