A mate of mine bought a striker with a 1600 crossflow mated to a 4 speed box,

Decided to put a 5 speed type 9 in to replace the 4 speed, type 9 was sourced along with bell housing, used original flywheel, replaced clutch to mate to the new 5 speed, prop was shortened accordingly, fitted back the original inertia starter motor and on starting the starter is not meshing with the flywheel, has anyone come across this problem and how have you rectified.

Cheers

It may be the starter position is different on bell housings
Or more likely the original starter is a short nose and the new bell housing needs a long nose
If you put a CVH & Pinto starter together you can see the difference
Also beware that the ring gear and starter gear need to be correct
That is now the limit of my understanding on this
Perhaps Turbosports forum have more detailed information

If there is no grinding noise It could just be a sticky Bendix gear , take the starter off and test it to see if the starter Bendix gets thrown in --- either get a mate stand on it to stop it moving or clamp it in a vice and use jump leads. While the motor is rotating Also check the shaft isn't bent.

If the Bendix is sticking clean it with WD40 working it in and out by turning back and forth. Once it is free it is important not to oil it, for lubrication graphite lock lubricant works best although WD40 should be fine.

Even with a three bolt starter (early xflows had 2 bolt flanges) it is important that the shim plate is fitted between the engine and bellhousing as this locates the starter.

[Edited on 13/5/13 by britishtrident]

Does the new flywheel have exactly the same ring gear as the original one (number of teeth and shape of teeth)?

The inertia type and pre-engaged starters require a different tooth shape, and the crossflow was fitted with a number of different ring and pinion tooth counts.

The ring gear on the flywheel and the starter are exactly as they were before the gearbox conversion, nothing has changed apart from different box and bell housing.