i have a 65 fastback and my step dad left it to me when he passed away and im finding things out about as i go along. the starter doesnt ingage the flywheel properly sometimes it grinds or just spins. so i took off the starter and the flywheel has taken a decent beaten from the starter its the stock flywheel. the car was originally a 289 2v 4 speed, but my step dad put 302 heads on it edlebrock intake manifold, holley carb, cam. no real internals like pistons or ne things to that extent. so he needed to put the 289 hipo starter on( a high compression starter) well come to find out they had to file down the starter housing to get it to fit whitch isnt the bestidea or correct way but it kinda of works. i want to replace the flywheel and make it so that the hipo starter will match up PROPERLY this time. there is a plate inbetween the bottom of the belhousing and back of engine block. the hole for the hipo starter is to small. so is this somthing that can be down and what kinda of flywheel do you think i should get based off the kind of power you think im putting out.
thank in advance for any help you can give me.

 

Well first off you need to get the proper flywheel and starter. It sounds like the starter is wrong. It should go in with out any modification what so ever.
-P.

 

yeah but the original starter wont work the motor is running at a higher compression the original 289 2v starter just turns it over like once and wants to explode it has a hard time doing it. so how do i get the 289 hi-po starter to fit properly

 

Check ford racing parts, they used to make a smaller hi-torque starter, I have one in mine. Other than that the only thing I can think of is the plate between the trans and the block needs to be changed to the hipo one. You might need the bellhousing off of it also.
-P.

 

yeah dont cut into your flex plate, get a mini hi-tq one from ford. it will be alot better then making one fit. make sure its the right teeth when you buy it! good luck

 

This may sound strange, but I replaced my starter one time, and it wouldn't fit all the way in the hole. Someone told me to get a starter for an automatic. (My tranny is manual) so I did, and it fit perfectly. Go figure.

 

i had the same problem. my flywheel wasnt it though. my starter needed to be shimmed a little bit. u just tell the local parts store u need a shim for your starter and it comes in different thicknesses. that might work. i have a tci high performance titanium flywheel. my starter stinks though.