Gear Reduction Starter

[c3po]

I had a Gear Reduction Starter installed today on my small block chevy because my old Delco-Remi barely started once the engine was hot.

The install went smooth, started the car up and put it in reverse, and the car made a screeching sound, put in the shims and it did the same thing again. Then we took the nose of the starter off and put in a washer that came with the starter.

The car started up fine and there was no noise when I put it through the gears. When I start the car you can immediately notice it is a gear reduction starter, it makes and incredible whooom noise. I got this starter from D&B Electrical, it cost about $77.00 plus $12.00 shipping. If I had gotten this starter from Summit it would have been $149.00 plus shipping.

The car starts fine after a long drive, no more hot start problems.

 

[c3po]

I also wanted too add that the other reason I did not get another Delco-Remy starter is because any starter you get from CarQuest, NAPA, Pep Boys, and Auto-Zone are all rebuilt.

I found out that a rebuilt starter does not have all of its components replaced, only the parts that are bad. We also do not know how good the quality of these replacement components are, they could be really cheap. A starter from NAPA wopuld have cost me $100.00 and 1 from CarQuest would have cost me $53.00

 

[duaneb9729]

sounds like you got a great deal and a good starter!

 

[jolotus]

Sounds like a good deal but NAPA gives a lifetime warranty with their parts, something to consider, guess it depends how long you plan on keeping the car. Good luck to you c3po

 

[carlprop]

Those are great prices! Half of what I just paid for a new starter. Thanks for posting this!

 

[punisher]

I had a 13.4-1 compression 468 that was miserable to start when it got hot. I went to using welding leads the size of my thumb for cables and a remote solenoid setup with the heavy duty Delco starter (for delivery vans) and it would still give me problems sometimes. I finally got a nice gear reduction starter, and put a home made heat shield on it, to finally solve the problem. I think of all the time and effort I could have saved just buying the right starter in the first place. Still PO'd over that one.

 

[Rabbler]

Your new starter is probably a permanent magnet design which helps too.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Originally Posted By: punisher
I had a 13.4-1 compression 468 ...


Mine didn't have that compression but I went through the process you describe. Finally did the gear reduction starter, and, like you, wondered why it took me so long. Turning the engine over no longer gave that ?????? feeling.

 

[c3po]

Rabbler is right it is a gear reduction starter.

Jolotus is right about the lifetime warranty with NAPA, but I have headers on the car and even though they are coated by Jet Hot inside and out, it still gets hot. I do not need to pull in somewhere in the summer after a long drive, go out 5 minutes later and the car is hard to start.

I could have gotten a gear reduction starter from the same company for $57.00, but it was the staggard bolt pattern and mine is the straight bolt pattern. My starter has a 1.6 horsepower motor, for $10.00 more I could have gotten a 2 horsepower motor starter, but this would be overkill.

Another nice thing about this starter is that it weighs 9 pounds, my old starter weighed between 18-20 pounds.

In regards to what punisher said, I have read that beefier battery cables and remote solenoids do not work well, those Delco starters just absorb heat, now probably the gear reduction starters do to, but they are unaffected by the heat to an extent.

I would go for a 10 mile drive, I have a 180 degree thermostat, and if I wanted it to restart in 5 or 10 minutes I would have to put the hood up, so it would cool down quicker, it always started up fine when the car had been sitting for a few hours. I was just afraid there was going to be a day when it would not even turn over when the engine was cold.

 

[BearZDefect]

I should have know about this when I was looking for a starter for my '97 i30... is that the same "D&B Electrical" referred to above? I notice the Nissan logo on one of their photos, so the aluminum housing looks OEM, so what is "new" here that is not new in a rebuilt?

It is half the price of the rebuilt I bought. And my unit was rebuilt in (don't need a second guess) China. Cheaper to ship all the way to China and back just for labor costs? Hard to swallow.

Only difference is my OEM Hitachi unit had an 11 tooth drive gear, the unit linked above is 10 tooth. I wanted the same number of teeth in my replacement starter.

 

[c3po]

I found out about D&B Electrical from a guy in my area that had an auto parts store, My opinion which may be WRONG, is that many companies including:

1) Summit
2) Jegs
3) Mean Green Starters
4) Tilton
5) Maybe GM Mini Starters

These companies buy starters from only a few companies that make starters and put there names on them. I am not making this up, Jegs had a Powermaster starter that looked exactly like mine, same size and weight, and it cost $213.00. You guys have to check out there website, they even have alternators and other electrical stuff.