I have my factory 289 with a t5 and t5 bell housing. And a 157 tooth flywheel.

I have been having starter issues and I think I may have the wrong part.

 

I used everything from the fox donor car, even the mini starter.

I did rebalance my flywheel tho.

 

Did you use the block plate for a T5? It is a piece of sheetmetal that goes between the block and bellhousing.

A C4 auto starter works on a T5 too.

 

I used the same starter from my c4

 

well I was sking because i have been having starter issues for a while now. I have gone through everything. I finally settled on crappy made in China starters from O'rilleys. Monday was the third starter in 1 month. I thought it may be the bolts that were letting it move but it turned out to be the starters. I also think that my headers come really close to it so the starter may be getting too hot.

I will wrap the headers to help. They are the Jet coated headman headers. I though the Jet coating was supposed to help keep the heat out and away from under the hood but I guess it can only do so much.

 

go to the junkyard and pull a mini starter off a newer ford(or buy one) from like a 91+ towncar mustang etc...that will give you a little more room for airflow etc

 

i used to have the same issue.I replaced the starter about 15 years ago with a rebuilt Kragen brand.No issues since.