I finally got around to redoing the thread insert, thread-cert, for the lower mounting bolt on my starter. I also hammered the steel cover plate back down flat and flush.
The install looks clean and flush, the thread cert is deep, not at the surface, so I expected my starter hanging problem to be gone.
No such luck.
The gremlins here have multiplied, and I now 3 transmissions that are down, or nearly down, starting problems on a fourth, and no joy on this one yet.
So I am back to look at the starter itself this time. I have one (or 2?) spare starters now, but it has been so long, I forget exactly where I was fighting this gremlin last time. All I recall is I had decided it was a bent cover plate at the thread cert and bad thread cert that had walked out and bent the plate and thrown the starter cockeyed, sideways enough to cause the starter to hang up on the fly wheel. As usual it seems I had, or have more than one problem.
If I got the new threads of the drilled hole and thread cert off set a little towards the block (which is possible), I guess that could be the problem, in which case I could take a little metal off the inside hole of the starters bottom bolt hole, on the left side.
I think there was also a possible problem(s) inside the newly rebuilt starter, but IIRC I tested both unmounted multiple times and they did not hang up, which eliminated one, but not the other?
After rereading the entire prior thread, it looks to me like it is time to oval the lower hole in the starter. Unless there is still a chance this is problem with the starter itself, like the pinion gear or?
But, I just got to thinking, that I might need to think about torque, and which side bolt hole is being pushed on. But I do not know the rotation on the starter, and the reference point for that rotation. Looking at the thread marks on the starter in the earlier pictures, I might need to add the relief to right side of the top bolt hole due to torque, even though the alignment issue bolt hole problem "MAY" be at the bottom (not sure it is an issue now).
However, this old post I made here a while back, has me scratching my head:
"A close friend of mine (a real sharp do it yourselfer) made an interesting observation. He says that since there is no polished area on the top of the teeth of flywheel, or in the bottom of the groves of the flywheel, that it does not look to him like the flywheel and starter gear are getting too close, close enough to cause a lock up that would keep the starter from disengaging, therefore he sees no need to back the starter away from the flywheel sideways by opening up the mounting holes in the starter (with ovals).
That leads me to think once again it is (was) the lower bolt thread cocking the starter up a bit of an angle, pointing the gear down slightly, that is letting it engage to start, but holding it from disengaging once it is rotating? "
If that was the case, I think I have it flush, which means the problem is something else?