[Barry_R]

I agree that a Ford starter pretty much has to engage to spin at all. The internal swinging pole arm uses a "dead short" to throw the drive out and break the contact points open. The starter will not spin until this happens.

If the starter is spinning the drive is not contacting the flywheel. I currently have an out of country customer who recieved the wrong flywheel in a McLeod clutch kit we supplied. You need to have a 184 tooth FE flywheel. Its also sadly common for starter to have bad parts from the proverbial "get-go". That said, I've had really good luck with parts store starters on some really large FEs. I'll bet the starter drive is no good.....