I can get to the ring grear with the housing on throught the starter hole. I was planning on tacking it on the back side of the flywheel. The ring gear looks fine, the flwwheel and motor are new, I do not know why the ring gear came loose.

Bad idea remove the flywheel and fix the real problem. Was the paint remove from the flywheel before the ring gear was installed??I have never had to weld a ring gear in 30 yrs many engines and many boats.
If the paint was removed sounds like the ring gear is the wrong size or the flywheel was cut to deap..
You will never get the balance right dont care how careful you put the tacks!! Plus you will distort the ring gear..

Used to see this in the old day's with lots of compression on drag motors before all the msd stuff was around.

Would it help to separate the starter switch from the ignition switch?
Get the motor spinning at cranking speed then flip the ignition on.
You'll build a little oil pressure before the engine starts as well.

Jeff

I would hate to have that ring gear come apart at 5000+ rpm. Pull the engine and put a new flywheel and ring gear on it. MSD makes a small device they call a starter saver just for this purpose. It retards the ignition 20 deg. until the motor starts and then it advances full. About a hundred bucks a piece. Or you can use a kill switch or lanyard to stop the spark until you get the motor spinning. Then hook the lanyard back up and the engine will start smoothly.

I agree you need to replace the flywheel, something was made wrong...probably some chinese crap !! you never know what you are buying days...

remove the engine and fix it correctly,i have never heard of to much timing causing that,are you sure the ring gear is spinning on the flywheel?usually the teeth get flat or brake off,either way you have a problem that needs to be addressed.when replacing a bad ring gear,you heat the new gear and freeze the ffywheel,then it will slip right on.if you are anything like me,you will need your wife to turn on the oven ,lol.i would be leary of welding it because a small amount of weight difference that far out on the flywheel can really change the balance of the engine.

Thats how I crank it,, Works great!!!

Pull it and replace it now and only cry once!!!
Better than out on the lake sunny day with friends rowing back My two cents!
Thumper