[steve meltzer]

OK, I did just that experiment this weekend despite the flood! put paint on the pinion gear and dc'd the ignition wire to the coil. Here' s picture if the website will cooperate. The guy at Powermaster said it was ok, but to add a shim between the block and the starter. With a fully charged battery connected to the car's battery leads, the car cranked weakly, but not enough to start. Felt like a weak battery, so I used another tested and proven battery iwth same result. Won't crank enough to start. Took the starter off to go back to the guy who put the new pinion gear on and he thought the paint marks were way off and wanted to look at the starter in more detail, but now, he's swamped (pardon the pun) with flood cars from Harvey. not sure the pictures will show. thanx s