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You have two possibilities: a bad bendix or a bad ring gear. Chances are it's the bendix. You will need to pull the starter to find out. To remove the starter, unscrew the bolts out of the block & put a nut on one of them. Otherwise, the starter comes apart. Not fatal, but not fun either. Then, loosen the two bolts holding the oil filter canister to the block, remove the dipstick, and keep the starter close to the block while pushing the front of it down and lifting the back up. Sometimes you have to remove the drain petcock as well.The bendix is behind the flywheel; your job is to get it over the flywheel. To install the starter, keep it close to the block while pulling the front of it up and pushing the bendix back into the hole. The bendix has to go behind the flywheel; your job is to get it over the flywheel. Grinding out an egg shape at the 2 o'clock position before you put it back will make your life easier. Lastly, while the starter is off, polish the block & starter mating surfaces w/ sandpaper to insure a good electrical ground between the two, and clean the mating surfaces where the starter's "belly" meets the aluminum endbell. The starter's ground circuit is through that "joint" as well was through the starter endbell-to-flywheel housing joint. When you get the starter off, check out the ring gear. You can turn the engine over w/ the front pulley (removing the plugs makes it easier) to check the entire ring gear. If you have a sidemount distributor, you can also use a big screw driver in the timing hole & turn it that way. But, chances are it is the bendix.
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