The complete drivetrain was installed a couple of months ago; new everything. Previously, the 440 was in there with this tranny. The starter was the conventional starter of the era, no problems. I bolted everything up and installed as a complete drivetrain. Initially, the starter seemed to operate perfectly, then over time, something started to sound wrong. The problem sound steadily got worse until one day, the starter would just activate, but the motor wouldn't turn over. The torque converter is a brand new unit as well. A couple of days ago I removed the old starter and installed the new one. Right off the bat, the new one didn't sound right. A friend came over last night and we took off the inspection plate to the tranny and noticed the paint on the ring gear teeth was only worn off at about a 1/4 of the teeth's depth. That seems to indicate the teeth from the starter aren't reaching deep enough with the teeth of the converter and slipping occasionally. This must be the weird sound from the new one..... It does about three revolutions and the pitch of the sound goes higher ( maybe that's when the starter free spins for a nano-second as the teeth don't contact? Only guessing. My friend stated there are starters in which I can adjust such that the gears of the starter is closer to the ring gear of the converter and hence, well have deeper meshing of teeth.