Starter issue

In the last couple of months i have been chewing through starters. I have a 258
and use regular NAPA starter and for some reason after about 3 weeks the starter
starts grinding like there are teeth missing on my ring gear. I have replaced my ring gear
is fine and i have tried shiming it in all angles and it hasn;t fixed it, I am wondering if anyone
has had any problem like this so they could give me something else to try. Any ideas will help.
Thanks for the help.

[LEVE]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
I have replaced my ring gear
is fine and i have tried shiming it in all angles and it hasn;t fixed it,

[/ QUOTE ]1. What type of shiming have you done?
2. Have you replaced your starter cables?
4. What's been wrong with the starters you replaced?
5. Are the bendix gear of the starters chewed up?

When i shimed it i used washers behind the nuts and to the left and the right to change the angle and that didn;t
help hardle at all. No i havent changed the power cable but that is easy to do and if that could
be it i will change it. The thing that has been happenign to the starter is the bearing that is in the tip of the started
has been wearing out. The bendix seems to be fine it seems like it is jsut that bearing. When i take it out if i shake
the starter itself you can hear clinking inside the starter. Thanks for the reply.

[ddieken]

If you've replaced the ring gear, that rules out any worn, broken or missing teeth on the flywheel side. I'm not sure if the starter on your YJ has a built-in or external solenoid but it could be that the solenoid isn't engaging the starter gear completely into the flywheel (or flex plate). If it's an external solenoid, you may want to replace it also. That's about the only other reason I could think of. If everything else and logic and resoning fail, you can always throw parts at the problem. I've seen ads for the Mean Green starter in catalogs like Quadratec and 4 WP Wholsalers. It's not cheap (around $250).

Ya i am trying to stay away from the idea of buying a Mean green Starter because they are alittle pricey.
Another question is what hav e other people used for shims when they shimed their starter. I used small washers
and they real didn;t help i was wondering if anyone has a better way they think to shim it. Any ideas will
because i am probably going to try to shim it up agian and see if that helps at all. thanks