Hi all. I need some guidance from the good folks here. I own a '89 240 with 247k miles. I love 'er and do my best to keep it running and tuned up. My starter recently went bye-bye in the Home Depot parking lot. It died solid. Since I've had this car for awhile, I've learned my lesson that AutoZone starters, thermostats, and alternators are not worth my time. So, this time I went to the local Import parts dealer and bought what I was told a "good" reman'ed starter.

I replaced the starter (in the parking lot). While the old starter came off easily, one of the bolts was particularly tough to touque down in the parking lot. I doubt that I cross-threaded anything but that one bolt was difficult. It was raining so I quickly mounted the starter, replaced the wires and then gave it a try. I immediately noticed that the starter was only partly engaging. I would hear it engage and turn the engine and then it would slip, causing the starter to spin un-engaged. One of 3 starts would be sucessful, the rest would result in this engage-disengage thing.

I thought that the starter was defective and returned it to the imported parts dealer. He gave me another, no problem. I took it home, removed the 1st replacement starter (no problem) and went to mount the 2nd replacement starter. This time BOTH bolts were very hard to torque down. It wan't a matter of the starter not fitting against the block, it was just that the threads in the starter seemed to be tight. After an hour of wrestling with it, I finally got it mounted. Now, it's better but I'd say 1 of 5 starts results in the same exact problem that I had with the 1st replacement. Can anyone recommend what I should do next? The flywheel teeth looked fine when I had the starter removed. What's the deal? Help!