New High-torque Started Frustrations

[surflvr911sc]

The solenoid on my starter started giving me intermittent trouble so I decided that this would be a good time to upgrade to the High-Torque starter that Pelican sells. I was very impressed w/ the size and weight when I received it.

Today is the day I decided to install it. First thing that I didn’t like was that it didn’t have a connector for both the ignition and the cold start valve. You must dike one or the other off and install a provided connector that allows you to connect them both to the same terminal. I went w/ the one from the ignition. Right after I diked it off I realized that as soon as I install the 3.6 I won’t need the cold start wire anymore, good going dip $h!t. No biggie but little things like that bug me.

The second thing I didn’t like was that there wasn’t any instructions provided so I had to look in the Bentley to make sure the one terminal would be ok and work right. I usually look in the Bentley, 101 Projects, Haynes, and the Pelican site before doing anything anyway but I felt instructions should have been provided for piece of mine.

The third thing I didn’t like was that the starter hit’s the heater duct. Not just a little bit but a lot. There of course is no way to turn it around because of the Transmission so I guess I’m just suppose to live with it? Maybe I’ll luck out and it wont hit w/ the 3.6.

The fourth thing was that the mounting flange on the high torque starter is much thinner than the original one. That means that the barrel nuts won’t work because the allen driver bottoms out on the stud or will no longer fit in the nut. So I had to use regular M10 nuts w/ lock washers. This one really bugged me because I was out of M10 nuts and had to make a run. If the barrel nut won’t work, why wasn’t replacement nuts included w/ the starter?

The fifth and final thing, and the reason why I’m writing this because I don’t know what I want to do about it, is that the power cable from the battery will not reach the new location of the terminals. WTF? I don’t want to do a cheesy extension on it. What am I missing here??

I understand that this starter probably was never designed for the 911 and was more likely adopted for use but I like to think that things I install on my car are as good or better than original and so far this part has not fit the bill. I don’t know what I’m going to do about it at this point. I think I’d really like some input from other that have install it and what you did about the above problems, if you had them.

Thanks for letting me vent.

[widebody911]

What starter are you using? I installed one in my '77, and it went in like butter.

[surflvr911sc]

That's it, the one on the left is the new starter ands the one on the right is the old starter. I can tell in the pic that that one's different than the one I got though. The mounting flange on your new starter is much thicker than the one I got.

[silverc4s]

Did you cal PP customer support for help?? You may have the incorrect part, right? ;-)

[Wil Ferch]

There are typically at least two versions of the high torque starter..and the mounting flange is different for both so the starter ends up in either a 1 o'clock (?) or 3 o'clock (?) position, as I recall. Gene Berg sells these for racing VW's and is an identical unit. See his web page for more details.
---Wil Ferch

[Jack Olsen]

The mounting flange on mine was machined down too far, with only about a millimeter of metal holding the thing in place -- and it failed. Wayne had never had one of them fail, before, so I suspect I got one with some non-spec machining.

The manufacturer replaced it without any questions, though. You might want to see if Pelican can get the alternate-position one.

[Doug Zielke]

Are these things made in China?
(That would be Problem #6.)

[addictionMS]

I did not have any problems with the hight torque starter, however this all started when the starter on my 1988 gave out, so I stole the stock one off the race acar and put it in the 1988. I had a bear of a time getting tihe existing one off, and ended up using brute force, and sawzalled off the solinoid to get to the back nut. I ended up having to get a gearwrench box wrench ( the ratcheting kind) and a 10mm hex key cut to about an inch, stuff a deep socket on the end of the wrench with an extension on that to get the leverage needed to crack the nut off.

So I do know the pain of working on the stock ones, try removing the flapper box for the heater it allows easier access. Three small 10mm nuts and you get alot more room.

As for the wires, did not have that issue,

good luck


Jim

[surflvr911sc]

I took a break, a beer, and a nap and went back at it. I was able to get enough slack on the battery cable by removing it from the wire harness clamps. Cranked right up. I can’t believe how much more quiet it is compared to the old one.

As far as the mounting flange goes, it’s about 5mm thick. Thinner than the original starter but still a lot of meat left. The M10 nuts I picked up work fine but I would have preferred to use the barrel nuts. Just anal I guess.

The heater hose issue might be solved when the 3.6 goes in. It’s right at the exit from the heat exchanges now. Not the way I would like it but not really hurting anything either.

I think I’ll be OK from here on out, thanks for your input guys.

[pbs911]

Ryan, you'll be glad you have the high torque starter with the 3.6. Think of this as the first step towards to conversion. I had to use a spacer on the top stub to retain the barrel nut. I thought something was wrong too, but I attribute the thinner flange to part of the weight savings. You will not need the 2 pronge connector with the 3.6.

What exhaust are you gong with with the 3.6? I have no problem with any interferace with the high torque starter and I really can't see how you would even if using SSIs. BTW, I suggest the B&B headers.