cvorden

First post and could really use some ideas. Little history. Its an 87 150, 4.9, auto, 2X4 stock truck. I picked it up pretty cheap in a trade. Guy said it ran pretty rough and never turned it off while we were making a trade for a lawn mower. Pulled it into the drive way and shut it down. Next morning came out tried to crank it over and got a terrible grinding sound from the starter before it finally caught. Fixed the rough idle after many new parts and compression checks. Turned out to be the TPS. Still got a grinding sound until it all but stopped and the starter just spun. Went and got a new one. Cranked fine about 12 times. Grinding returned then so did the bendix spinning and not engaging. Took that starter back, bought a good one from NAPA. Installed. Cranked about 40 times no problem. Left it overnight. Next morning. Grinding has returned. The dust plate is pretty bent up on the bottom. Attempted to straighten it out as much as I could. Got a shim ring, longer bolts, tried shimming around the top side. but it still will catch like once then grind.

The flywheel is missing no teeth and looks in good order (I have spun the engine around and looked at all the teeth)

Am I just an idiot and missing something? I have tried three different starters and still get the same results after a certain period of time.

I am really hoping someone has run across this problem. Its cold as hell working on the ground under this truck here in VA and I have taken the starter off about 50 times trying different things.

Sorry for the long post. Thank you in advance for any replies.