[Xavier]

After alot of thinking and drawing templates of the starter mounting position and looking at the pinion gear this is what I think has happend, or will need to. The Lakewood bellhousing I have, the one that came with the engine, according to the Lakewood website was not for my application. Although it bolts on with the tranny and clutch in place with no problem, with backing plate, I always wondered why they said it would not work, or was not for the application. Will get back to this later....

The mounting position on both the OEM that failed to work, and the Powermaster that I had problems with are exactly the same. The pinion gear, as you can see in the pic, is of a different position. One is 3/8" another 3/4". Take a look at the pinion position and you will see the Powermaster (on the right) sticks out much farther, thus as soon as you mount it, it is coming in contact to the flywheel, thus ruining your starter the first (and only) time you start your engine. Whether the gear comes out or not, it is fully touching the flywheel. I would have to put about 3/8" of shims to correct this, which obviously can not be done.

So if the OEM was the shorter offset why didn't it work when installed? Although it has the correct pinion offset, and works correctly, it has a smaller diameter pinion then the Powermaster, thus is meant for a flywheel with more teeth. Although it engages correctly with the right offset, because of its diameter it will never reach the flywheel (left to right).

Which is where the bellhousing comes in. If the "correct" bellhousing would have been purchased, I am certain the technically "correct" Powermaster I have would have worked, but now I have to order the "wrong" one for it to work correctly on the "wrong" bellhousing. Both of which will work together. I need the current starter from Powermaster, just with a shorter pinion offset. Same mount, type, etc, just a different offset.

So in short, the offset of the pinion gear was wrong on the Powermaster, and I just have to get another one with the shorter offset. The one that is used with my Lakewood bellhousing.

Thus another chapter is open and closed in the Cobra build story and the lesson (one alreay learned) is buy the parts yourself, do not let someone figure it out for you, even if they say they have. Do your own investigation and buy the "correct" stuff yourself, even if it costs more up front, because you may save $167 in a starter and God knows how much time on the internet typing long, long replys...