Hello Everyone,

I have a 77 CJ7 that originally had the 304/TH400/Quadratrac combo.

I've completely rebuilt the jeep from the ground up over the past 4 years, except, I've used a 360 instead of the original 304.

I'm having a problem with the starter or flexplate however. I was using a Powermaster starter with the 360 to begin with. But, when I was trying to fire up the motor for the first time to break it in, it made a horrific noise, such as the starter was grinding. I went to the local parts store and picked up a remainufactured starter to see if that would alleviate the issue. It still makes a loud noise, but isn't as bad as the powermaster starter was.

I've been going round and round with the machine shop that built the engine, powermaster and even mean-green to try and figure out what is going on. Everything seems to be pointing to something with the flexplate. The flexplate on the motor is for a 360 but something still isn't right.

Does anyone have any suggestions, or, is this a known issue when performing this kind of swap?

Thanks for any info anyone might offer.

Aubrey