Well first the nose on my hi torque starter broke,I went to the local auto zone and bought the only thing they carry (rebuilt) it lasted two days and then would not even grunt,I took it back and got a replacement,(same thing happened),I am thinking about going to a high torque mini starter to keep it away from the pan and block,I'm looking at one called Mastertorque,#PWM9600 from Pace Chevrolet,Has any one an opinion on this one or a recommendation for something else.It's embarrasing as H##L when it wont go :mad


[Modified by hauk, 9:33 AM 5/1/2003]

 

HOw close are your headers to the starter???

GENE

 

About 3 inches

 

:rant:

OPINION
Auto Zone and their similar cronies sell junk...buy from Delco or Summit or Jeg's. Real parts houses have not been able to compete with these junk dealers and unfortunatly many have closed or resorted to selling junk too. That may not be what your starter problem is but I have been the buy..return..return..return route with these Kmart parts houses. I have learnt my lesson. Cheaper to do it once.

 

Hauk, ya gotta go with the hi-torque mini-starters. I've had mine on my 80/ZZ3 w/ headers for about eight years. They are more expensive than a regular starter, but you won't be replacing them every other week. As stated above, check w/ Jeg's, Summitt or GM performance parts.

 

I tend to agree about parts house rebuilts, BUT in fact my starter is just that, with my header collector the closest point to the strater is one inch....
now under those conditions it's been over a year in operation, the previous 6 years was another set/headers and further away...but none of the header was/is anything but simple steel, no insulation or anything, in fact I have never had a starter heat sheild on this car either.....the starter is just a plain HD unit, rebuilt, and is identified as being 'HD' by the ~3/4 inch long piece of extension shim/pipe/buching on the starter input tab, between it and the solenoid...that makes up for the slightly longer starter 'motor' proper....the field and armature...the head ends being identical.....

NOW having said all that, back when I first bought this car, I tore the hell out of the stock electrical system, and cleaned, soldered, pulled down and inspected ALL of it, battery cables to frame, frame to block, battery positive wire to starter, and wire to system.....everything shiney new looking metal, re attached everything securely, and then covered it with RTV so water can't get in.....game over.....I have had two batteries in this car in the 7 years....one new one to start off, and a replacement down here in Florida....
course I also have a VOLTMETER from an '80's pickup in place of the ampmeter so I KNOW what the electrical system is doing also.....

I think all these 'heat soak' problems are anyting BUT, unless the headers are any closer than an inch...then you melt the insulations and fry the bakeolite then any bets are off......

GENE

 

Bought a summit brand high torq starter and it is strong enough to make the car start with it in gear, don't ask me how I know. :bb

Have run with coated header with no problems so far.

 

I had what I thought was a heat soak problem last year. I had headers on the carbut there were about 3" of space there. I tried a heat cover, rebuilding the starter, and several other things but would still get somewhere and turn the key and nothing. Would wait 5 minutes sometimes 30+ for it to spin over. I checked the wire to the solenoid and found it was either #16 or #14 awg and had been spliced in the past. I spliced in a new connector to #10 wire and used shrink tubing over the connections. This seemed to solve the problem. I didn't drive it much afterwards befoer tearingthe car down.
Good Luck,
Gary

 

thanks to all for the replys

 

I went the cheap route on my 83 cutlass with a 350 chevy and headman headers, one header tube almost hits the starter. But the orginal 1 million mile starter that I had never made a peep, always turned over and then one day the brushes went out. So rather than rebuilding a good thing I bought a then Western Auto. The first starter was noisy and seemed like it always had a hard time starting the car, hot or cold. I even shimed it out to help relieve the noise, 3 months later I was back at Western Auto getting a free replacement. After that one died six months later I went bit the bullet and went to Car Quest to get a real starter. No shims was super quiet and spun the motor over like a champ hot and cold, never had a problem with the starter since then.

 

My solution. Cheaper than flatbed tows.

 

You can also buy the late 90's gear reduced truck starter. It my work better.

 

Having NEVER run a gear reduction starter on any GM car, I really can't say about it's operation, BUT knowing a lot about Mopar, Dodge 318 specificaqlly from my vans....I can say the gear reduction starter in Mopar does not turn over the engine as fast, and so i'ts harder to start quickly at first snap, the engine tends to turn over more/longer....AND especially when hot, it's something that cranks forever, and may NOT catch....on a stock GM, the unit will reengage immediately, but on the Mopar, it is something I have to wait for the starter to settle down before hitting the switch again...I find the Mopar gear reduction starters to be a PIA to live with, really, just a minor irritant...
but the symptoms are NOT there with a stcok GM......BUT do those mini-starters have that operation charactoristic??? and I suppose they are a gear reduction starter.....looks like it from pix I"v seen....

GENE

 

Remote solenoid. :yesnod:

Brett :thumbs:

 

Easy fix 1) remove starter and wrap the starter selenoid with header wrap : you may have to remove the selenoid from the starter to do this. 2) wrapany exhaust thet runs near the starter with the same warp " forget those silly hi-torque starters wast of money. This what I did on my 72 454 and no more starter problems.

 

Ya but they look cool hanging off the eng.




Oh ya, and lighter to boot!


[Modified by Fevre, 8:40 AM 5/2/2003]