Quote Originally Posted by rumpfy View Post
if the bolts are tight and stay tight, it wont move. By right and left, I guess you mean 'away from the engine block' and 'down towards the ground'. Whatever though, you are seeing the affect of the torque reaction on the starter as it tries to turn the crankshaft.
Are the threads on the bolts OK? Maybe the female threads on the housing are stripped. If the threads on the housing are stripped, you will have to put in some helicoils.
Either way, if you dont fix it, you will end up needing another ring gear or starter pinion of both.
Thanks for the help, I got some time to jack the Verada up and pull out the starter and the inspection plate, it looks like the pinion gear and ring gear have taken a few hits to the teeth but I'll check the ring gear more closely with the trans out, and also found that the inspection plate had been pushing against the rear main seal, so oil has been dripping onto the ring gear and into the lower starter mounting bolt which probably acted like a lube for the starter to move with the torque reaction. So I will be pulling the trans out soon to replace the rear main seal, so I will also do the torque converter seal and drive axle seals in one go. And then I will be pulling the heads off and replacing the valve stem oil seals and have the heads cleaned up and checked and machined while they are off.