[jwheel55]

Rick! Thank you for your suggestion. I will try shimming out and see what diference it makes. I was thinking that the pinion bendix wasn't meshing deep enough a causing the noise but I hadn't considered whether it was travelling too far and perhaps bottoming out and clashing. I sounds just like those old starter motors, before pre-engaged types were used, when the pinion and ring gear used to get chipped and worn making that horrible metallic noise. It will a couple of days before I can get to it but hopefully I can fix it. Jonny