How to determine flywheel size Merc 57

"Obviously the motor is still

"Obviously the motor is still in the vessel. I just recieved this 88 21' welcraft with a 5.7 and the starter bendix is worn beyond all recognition. I've inspected the flywheel as best I can and it seems to be in decent shape. Upon removing the starter I realized that one of the bolt's could be removed by hand... which I'm guessing has led me to this issue. Long story short I'm hoping to replace the starter and get her out on the water, but I'm unsure of how many teeth the flywheel has and it's my understanding that there were two different ring gears for gm 350's ( mercruiser 5.7)"

You should be able to order a

You should be able to order a starter using the engine serial number

Is there a bracket for the sta

Is there a bracket for the starter?

"Make sure of the eng's ro

"Make sure of the eng's rotation, some starters run counter-clockwise depending on the eng you have."

"There was no bracket, the sta

"There was no bracket, the starter bolt's directly to the block. There were some shims in place which I set aside. I was told that the "mini" starter's usually dont require a shim, any experience with this?

It's a standard rotation 350, I also have a 66 31' owens with twin chrysler's so I've dealt with reverse rotation before..."

Cross reference the worn start

Cross reference the worn starter's model #.

"GM only used two starters,one

"GM only used two starters,one for small flywheels,with the mount bolts even across the nose. and one for the big flywheel, it has stagered mount bolts one up at the nose and one back in the housing a few inches.
GM inline 4s (120 and 140hp) used the small flywheel, mount bolts even across the nose.
v6s and v8s generaly used the big flywheel,with stagered mount bolts.
seems some of the real old v8s used the small flywheel (327s)
hope this helps some,also you should never need to shim a good marine starter."

"Ayuh,... Allanova is Right,..

"Ayuh,... Allanova is Right,...
The Striaght across bolt patterned starter uses the 153 tooth, 12" ring gear,....
The Staggered patterned starter is for the 168 tooth, 14" ring gear..."