You can see how my starter is behind my headers and I have had the same mini starter on my 63 since 2006 when I put it together. And it has never gave me a problem. I used a Power Master mini starter but we have the Mopar V/6 mini starter on my sons 400 Dart and it has also never gave a problem and its been on his car since 1997. The clutch drive will let the starter drive the eng but not the eng drive the starter. But when they slip the starter just zings up like its free wheeling since the one way clutch is slipping when the starting is driving the eng. It sounds like thats what yours is doing. Good luck with it. Ron