Well this thing has been kicking my teeth. The housing where the starter bolts to the block was cracked on the bottom side. To avoid it breaking off, I drilled farther up into the block and then tapped some more threads and am now using a longer bolt for that side of the starter. I have been doing what I call a solenoid test where with the starter bolted on, you pull the solenoid back a little ways by hand thus moving the armature that the starter gear is on. This effectively shows me where the starter gear is going to land on/in the ring gear if the starter were to be energized. (Without grinding the crap out of the teeth).
After all said and done, the ring gear looks good enough to work (though worn a tiny bit), the starter was verified to work correct and is now more secure than ever, the gear lines up and goes into the ring gear pretty snugly/tightly... But when I try to crank it there is an awful mechanical resistance type of noise. Definitely not your typical cranking noise.
What all is the Flexplate bolted to? Is it Flexplate to Torque Converter to Tranny to Engine? I don't know what down the line could be resisting, but it is no good and I need to identify the problem.
I'd be grateful for any advice/recommendations/thread links.