97 expedition starter

My starter crapped out this morning so I replaced it this afternoon. The truck starts but, Itsounds like the starter needs to be shimmed. It seems like its not catching the flywheel properly. Are there shims for it? I've never come across this problem before. Please let me know if anybody has come across this. Thanks

No shims on a Ford pruduct like that I know of. I would inspect the flywheel teeth for damage. Also make sure there is no corrosion built up behind the thin spacer plate between the bellhousing and starter where the starter mounts. This will make the starter slightly off-center and make noises also. I have seen this before.

It turned out that it was the starter drive gear was too small. The replacement starter had 10 teeth on the drive gear and the original had 12. Went back to Advance and they gave me a new one with the correct ammount of teeth. No problems since!