Welllll..... Turns out one of the wires where I bolted it on was shorting to the terminal next to it. (Not sure if this was the original problem, but this happened on my replacement.) it didn't look like this was happening but the metal from the lug next to it was just barely piercing through the heat shrink. So basically the shorted wire was engaging the starter but not allowing the bendix to engage. So I would just make sure the terminals are isolated from one another. It's hard because it's such a tight space.

Good luck!