Truck won't turn over

[ChevyRay07]

I have a 1985 Chevy Scottsdale came with a 305 but switched to a rebuilt 350 of a 1979 Chevy suburban with double time chain.
My truck would turn on perfect but I notice little by little I started to hear a grinding noise once I turn the truck on and my starter didn't work so I change it and one day later it die on me so I got under there and saw that the starter will go in but wouldn't turn the flex wheel at all and it's just grinding on there so I was wondering what it would be?

[Irish_Alley]

could be a bad spot in the fly wheel. since it was a new starter did you add any shims? but since you just put a new on one i would almost bet you hit a dead spot in the flywheel

[bake74]

     As  Irish_Alley said, if you/po did not shim the starter properly, not only could you have worn/broken some teeth on the flywheel, but your actual starter gear teeth could be worn down to where it is not making contact enough to turn the flywheel.  Check both of those things and report back.

[ChevyRay07]

I was looking and the gears on the starter doesn't seem to get in the flywheel or it doesn't turn the flywheel. I went to get my starter change and it turn on good and then out of no where today the starter started acting up. My flywheel is brand new I got it when I did the engine which was in March of this year so I'm wondering maybe the starter is not strong enough to turn over the engine? This is the 3rd starter it burnt out. So what can it be and there's also a S and R on the starter and I was wondering what that is about if something needs to be hook on the one that says R?

[bake74]

I was looking and the gears on the starter doesn't seem to get in the flywheel or it doesn't turn the flywheel. I went to get my starter change and it turn on good and then out of no where today the starter started acting up. My flywheel is brand new I got it when I did the engine which was in March of this year so I'm wondering maybe the starter is not strong enough to turn over the engine? This is the 3rd starter it burnt out. So what can it be and there's also a S and R on the starter and I was wondering what that is about if something needs to be hook on the one that says R?

      So what you are saying is that when the starter engages, you do not think the teeth of the starter is engaging the teeth of the flywheel correct ?
     S- Is for Start and R- is for run.
When you turn your key all the way on you send power to the S wire that in gauges your starter and spins the motor.
     The "R" terminal is a leftover from the old school way of building cars. No Chevy V8's have actually used the R terminal since the very early 70's You see that terminal is for a car equipped with a points style distributor.
     Those ignition systems require a ballast resistor or the coil would fry itself in a short period of time. The "R" terminal is a bypass to allow full voltage to the coil during start up.
     This would be an example of one that uses the R position on the solenoid.

     So let me recap, if you look at your starter and flywheel and both set of teeth are in good shape and not chewed up/missing teeth then your starter was shimmed correctly.
     You have 2 situations that could be occurring: 
     #1:  your brand new starter is bad just because it is more than likely re-manufactured.  It happens often with re-manufactured starter believe it or not.
     #2:  if your engine has componits to make it high compression then you could have burned out the starter.  In this situation a "gear reduction starter"  is what you need.  They cost more, but they are higher torque when turning and will stand up to heat better then a regular starter.
     Sometimes heat can kill a starter, but after a couple of days I would say that is not the case in your situation.
     Check out u-tube for all kinds of videos on Chevy starters.

[ChevyRay07]

Thanks so I figured I had to half shim the starter thru the outside bolt of starter and the starter went in perfectly and turn over the truck right because what I was putting was a full shims and I'm guessing it was just doing the same as just not having them in there.