<VV> Starter woes

[Smitty]

My thought would be that since the crank, input shaft, trans output, and 
pinion shaft are all supposed to be parallel, and they should all also be 
normal to the case faces, that the bellhousing sides should be parallel 
too.--Bryan
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Smitty says ; had a friend several years ago that was experiencing about the 
same problems.  Doing all the measurements he found that the bellhousing was 
indeed bent.  Not up or down as you would expect, but to one side about 3/32 
of an inch.  Being a machinist engineer his "simple" solution was to make a 
curved tapered shim to bring things into alignment.  Really not that hard to 
check when the bellhousing is free of the engine, but if you go that far, 
why not change it.