Its been some time since ive been on here, actually ive never been on the 2nd gen section... i own a 4th gen but over summer i bought a 79z.

Last time i posted on here I was buying a pair of c5 rims for the 4th gen and i got scammed but i got my money back........

but back to why i am posting again.

I bought my 79 over summer and i love it, its a driving project..... well until a few months ago :/

It has a t350 tranny and a sbc400 in it, well over summer i started having problems with my starter grinding my flywheel to all hell..... so i replaced it (168 tooth with correct starter as well) my block is drilled for both a staggered and straight mounts for the starter.

Ive tried it all, with all different shims ans different mounting patterns like i mentioned above ^^

So ive been fed up with it and i do NOT want to chew this flywheel up so how much do you think a shop would charge to have it shimmed correctly?

 

call around to all your local shops (also read reviews on them) and go with the best combination

 

Any good shop should be able to align the starter in one hour, so whatever their hourly rate is should do it. Some shops have a minimum 2 hr. charge, but if that's the case I'd take it to another shop.
We have a couple local shops that specialize in automotive electrical, so they do nothing but starters, alternators, voltage regulators, etc. These shops specialize in this work, so their rates are cheaper, as they know how to do it quicker. If you can find such a shop, I'd reccommend using them for this reason.

 

Your starter problem is you have too loose of a gear mesh, and just shimming under the bolts is dropping the starter away from the flexplate teeth even more, making the mesh worse. What you need to do, is shim under the outboard mount only, which will rock the starter at an angle closer to the flywheel. You may even have to grind the starter nose housing at the inboard mount area some to raise it up more. Been there, hate that when it happens.

 

I've had that happen a couple times with rebuilt starters and just took them back. Sometimes you get a bad one and exchanging it will cure the issue.