Another Starter Problem

[tim71]

I'm restoring a 71K1500. The engine,tranny and transfer case are rebuilt and back in frame. After pre-oiling the engine, I wanted to turn the motor over with the starter. The starter is new and I proceeded with sparkplugs out. When I engaged the remote starter switch, the engine began to turn over but wouldn't stop turning over until I disconnected the neg cable from the battery. The pinion gear was still engaged to the flywheel, I had to loosen the starter bolts to get it to retract. The new starter is fried, just the positive cable and ground made the starter run, solenoid dead. They replaced starter and I used 4 shims on starter 2. The pinion gear is still hanging up. At least the remote start switch is working OK, I haven't fried starter 2. How many shims can you use? Any ideas?