I bought this truck used and someone had rebuilt the 351W motor and the starter stopped working one day so i went to the parts store and got a new one to put on and it would not work either. The new starter worked fine it just wouldn't line up with the flywheel and turn the motor over. The old starter had a bigger gear in it then what the new had and i had the parts store try to match the old one but no one can so i just had it rebuilt. Worked fine for awhile and now its not working again. What i mean by not working is you can hear it grinding on the flywheel. I guess my question is could they have put a different flywheel in or could it be something else?

 

You're not imagining it. Lots of people have had problems with replacement starters. I've seen other posts saying the same thing, that the gears on the new starters don't line up with the old flywheels/flexplates. You could try talking to a local alternator shop. They might have a way to fix it.

 

There is a difference in the starters for a manual transmission as opposed to an automatic transmission. I'm sure the parts place realized this?