The starter on my slant has recently started acting up, and is starting to be a real pain. Beginning couple of weeks ago, when I turn the key, the gear seems to engage the flywheel for just a moment, turns the engine a few degrees, and then slips off and spins freely. If the engine catches a little bit, I might get some engage-disengage with some nasty clacking.

The battery charge is good, so I'm thinking it might be related to blowing the exhaust flange gasket at about the same time this started--might have cooked the started pretty good with the hot gases for a few hours. This sound likely? Or is there another likely explanation?

Thanks,
Matt

Is your starter a remanufactured starter from a parts store? These are pretty much garbage (I know, I'm running one right now). It could be your flywheel is worn but the most likely culprit is the starter plunger not going out far enough to really grab onto the flywheel. Most remanned starters have lifetime warranties so you can just go exchange it for another one that doesn't do this (for the time being). A lot of guys go with mini starters that don't seem to have this problem.

Yeah, the started is a cheapo parts store replacement from what I can tell. I can replace it no sweat, was just curious about the failure coinciding with the exhaust flange gasket going. I know headers cook starters with the extra heat, figured maybe this was the same failure mode.