Those starters seem to be good too, thanks.

 

bought this one, works great and was cheap.

 

Does anyone know if I need the starter with 153 tooth or 168 tooth?

 

auto or stick?

 

Auto

 

My 87 has the small flywheel. 153

 

My replacement is the smaller/lighter reduction gear unit.

Sounds very different when starting but I'm told it draws less current on the start.

Had to stretch the cables a bit otherwise its a snap to install!

Oh I usually pull just the positive cable, but make sure and tie it away from the terminal.
Dont ask me how I know....

 

Thank you for both responses. Ill make sure I will tie the positive cable. I can assume how you know, lol. I just need to find out how many teeth I need for an 87 automatic.

 

Ok, I'll bite. How do you know?

 

most of the small starters work with both, straight across bolt holes are usually 153, staggared bolt holes are usually 168

 

153

 

there's several ways to actually tell other than the bolt holes, but if your engine or trans hasnt been out of the car by a previous owner, its going to have the 153, they put the 168 behind big blocks, 153 flexplate is 11" 168 is 13" they will interchange but not from the factory. the 168 usually comes with the stagered bolt holes., hope this helps.

 

Oh ok. I am pretty sure my engine and trans has never been removed to I will go with the 153.

Now I have to decide if I should go with the mini starter or just go with an OEM and wrap it in a heat wrap for $23.00. However, one guy sent a link to an Ebay site where the starter is only $62 bucks. But the mini starters seems like more work with shims involved and from what I read I think it gets wired slightly different. Actually the Corvettefever articles says as follows:

"How difficult is the wiring? If you have a look at the solenoid, you'll see two threaded (8-mm) studs and one male spade (push on) terminal. The (+) battery cable attaches to the top stud and the starter switch wire goes to the spade terminal. In some applications, an ignition resistor bypass is used. In this case, the wiring is the same, but a second wire from the distributor goes to the starter. Connect the distributor wire to the lower 8-mm stud (closer to the starter motor body). A 10 amp, 12-volt diode will have to be spliced into this wire so that feedback voltage does not reach the starter. Although the diode isn't supplied with the McLeod starter, they advise that any 10 amp, 12-volt diode will work."

So, what is this diode and splicing nonsense about? All comments welcome.

 

that b.s. is for cars with points ignitions, you dont have that, all you do is plug it in, you may need to reroute the positive cable to reach, but thats bout it. the shims are a fact of life with almost every chevy starter, big or small.

 

Ohh ok. So I would need to use the shims? and is that anything to worry about for me to do?

 

do more reading on the subject, there's plenty of info on this and other sites, use the search function.