I've searched for this every way I can but most people who have starter sticking issues have them stick on permanently and its a bad solenoid. Mine stays engaged for 3-5 seconds and makes an awful crunching/grinding noise before disengaging. I was told it was the switch and replaced that. No dice. Solenoid was replaced as well and this is all on a starter with less than 500 miles on it. I shimmed it and it still does it too. Any ideas out there of what it could be? I now have two shims on there and it still does it. I probably need to pull one of the shims although I have about 3/8-1/2" gear contact. It's kind of embarrassing every time I have to start but I'm more worried about gears shearing off in the flywheel. Is that possible?