E30 Zone

Is there a difference(with the teeth) in early-late or auto-manual M20 starter motors?
Ive never had a problem fitting them before but a couple of weeks ago I fitted M20 starter/flywheel/clutch in my E36.
All went well untill cranking and it was clear the teeth were missing the ring gear.Thought the starter was loose/out of line at first but it wasnt.
Anyway I borrowed another M20 starter from a mates E30 and when comparing the teeth on mine to his they were clearly slightly different?

Fast forward till now.
Got a replacement starter from Adit to fit on the E30 mine came off.
Cleaned it up and tested its worked ok then fitted to his car,went to crank it over and it is missing the ring gear as mine did previously.

So am I fitting a prefecelift or auto starter or something?
Are they different to post facelift/manual ones?
Enlighten me please!

wierd, I have swapped auto starters to manuals , pre- face to face lift and never had any probs ?

I have always thought they were the same, perhaps one is from an M40/M42 ?

Wierd I know,ive swapped loads over over the years never with a problem!
M40/42 is dual mass though same as M50/52 so no use.

when i did a manual conversion on mine the original auto starter wont work it just spun away to its self when i swapped it for the one off the manual car it worked fine and they looked (to me) identical

They are the same the only difference between early and late starters are the size of the body's on them the pre facelift one being the bigger of the two

town325i wrote:They are the same the only difference between early and late starters are the size of the body's on them the pre facelift one being the bigger of the two

Which coincides with the problem im having.
The one I fitted to my car when I did the M20 bits swap was a large body prefacelift one.
The one I blagged and still have fitted from my mates M50 is a small bodied post facelift one....works fine on his and mine.
The one I got from Adit is the larger bodied one again same as my original one and the problem is there

The large bodied one fouls on the m50 block so it could possibly not be lining up correctly and hitting the ring gear rather than engaging it