I recently figured this out and am starting to understand my issue. It seems that most cars run a 42p pinion and that my car runs a 48p METRIC, or .6 module. Those pinions do not seem very common, and I recall the guy who sold me this car grabbing the pinion off the wall quickly - acting very much like the pinion he gave me was standard. When I look at the mesh, the gears barely interact. And looking at the stripped gears, they only seem to be stripped at the edges of the teeth. Both things seem to tell me that the pitch is off and not biting. Am I reading this scenario correctly? I've since ordered two .6 steel pinions, one in the stock 17T and one in 19T and a handful of stock spur gears to play with (because I burned through three today!). I think I'm on the right path now.
Thanks for chiming in.