Mini Starter grind :(

I ran into this with my Dodge D50, which is running a 273/904 & a mini starter.

The first mini-starter I had in the truck was used (believe it was for a 90's ram 1500 with a 5.9L) the first thing I noticed was the bendix was smaller on the mini starter when compared to my old fullsize starter. A few people told me it was ok, So I bolted it in and as soon as I hit the key, it wanted to eat all the teeth off the ring gear :oops:

Removed it from the truck and got a different Mini Starter (one for a '94 1500 with a 5.2L), the bendix was the same size as the older large starters, bolted up fine (had to remove the wiring adapter to clear the frame in my truck) and I haven't had an issue with it since I installed that one.