Well that was a nightmare. I found the problem. It was the starter. It wasn't disengaging. I'll pick a new one up tomorrow and be done with this. I sure misdiagnosed the issue at first. Oh well, I replaced some extra parts that needed to be replaced. I'm into it for under $300 in parts and a shop would have charged at least $500 just to replace the starter.
I also got to use my tools and get my hands greasy. Makes me feel like a real man.
I will say one thing. They sure cram things in and make it extremely difficult to DIY on cars these days. I'm not looking forward to putting the top bolt back in. It's a blind bolt and difficult to get to.
As you can see the the gear isn't retracting like it should. This is how it looked when I pulled it out. The gear was still engaged with the flywheel. You should only see about a half inch of the gear but it's fully deployed. It won't even retract when I try to push it back.