[buzzinhalfdozen]

Friend of mine with a BBF in a S/Comp dragster went through this same thing last winter. He sent his starter back for a routine freshen up (tilton super starter) installed new flexplate and spent about a month or so grinding up flexplates and pulling his hair out. He stopped one day and asked if I'd take a look at it, well the drive would come out some times hit the flexpate then go back, sometimes would engage for a bit and pulse in and out. I went and got my 25 year old tilton manual starter put his auto head on it and it worked perfectly.After many trips back and many phone calls tilton finally made him aware that the factory that had made the solenoids had been damaged in the Japanese tidal wave a couple years ago and they had to source the solenoids elsewhere. Bottom line they finally supplied him with a functional solenoid and has been working fine ever since, only cost him 2 flexplates and a lot of headaches.