Starter, Flexplate woes

Ok when I rebuilt my engine, I stuck with the original flexplate, it had a section of about 5 teeth that were eaten up pretty bad. Before the build the starter would Rarely find these teeth and require me to turn the engine over by hand until it found good teeth to mesh with. Well with the new engine, my original starter exploded on initial start up. I installed a new starter, and found that it was nicking the flexplate while running making a griding sound. I added a starter spacer and the problem was solved. Everything was fine up until now that my motor is starting to break in with roughly 2500 miles on it, The starter seems that it is too far away making a grinding sound when cranking over and it finds those 5 burned off teeth quite more often forcing me to carry breaker bar and a 15/16 socket at all times. Soo, is it normal for starters to break in and start to seat where they should? Should I remove the spacer and see what happens? I have another spacer laying around, should I double them up??? Thanks

Mike

By spacer I meant shim. Anywho yes the block plate is installed. Im going to pull the starter, and check for metal flakes, also remove the inspection plate and see how those teeth are looking. Ill get back to you guys

Mike

I removed the inspection plate, and turned the crank over by hand, the teeth were all fine minus the original section that had been eaten up before the build. I removed the starter, and the shim, there was about 1/8'' of starter eaten up. I removed the shim and reinstalled, the car starts quicker and doesnt grind anymore. Only problem, on a cold start where you apply gas, the engine will rev on initial start up, but the starter will nick the flex plate when it springs back into place... Don't know the anatomy of a starter to well, but it sounds like the return spring or whatever mechanism in there that returns the teeth from the flexplate is too weak. Thanks guys

Mike

The one that went bad recently was a NAPA reman.....I cored it in for a reman Checker brand and it A. looks wayyy beefier and B it works 100% better. The NAPA was sluggish and and would grind every 5 seconds. The checker is perky and fast and never grinds. I had to use a 1/8" shim for the starter.

Mike