JimPeoria
Registered User
What kind of starters are you getting anyway? I was a starter and alternator repairer for over 17 years and found on Ford engines if you are using a 28MT style starter you will get about 6 months to a year out of them no matter if they are rebuilt or factory new in most cases. They were never built for the kind of load of starting those diesels in Fords with marginal glow plugs at best. Go find a good rebuilder of starters or someone other than the standard box parts stores and get yourself a good Nippondenso replacement starter for any of the Ford diesels which are actually International engines. Also there is a company in southern California that makes a really great starter replacement by using genuine Nippondenso motors and solenoids fitted to a rotatable nose end so if you have headers or other obstructions you can get past them. The name of the company is IMI Performance and their phone number is 888-244-8675. You can look them up online by the way. Their starters are not cheap but they will be the last starter you will have to put on your Ford diesel. You may have to change contacts and brushes once in a while but that is a minor maintenance cost rather than a full price starter charge. When I had my shop I would sell one of those and never see it till it needed contacts in the solenoid or brushes. That starter will also crank the engine fast enough to almost never need the glow plugs at all but certainly not recommended that you let them go bad anyway. It is extreamly important that you keep maintaining them. They need to be changed about as often as you change your tighty whites in most cases and in particular if you have a 28MT or old direct drive starter on you engine. Both of which just don't have enough power to properly crank you engine unless everything is perfect. By the way that same Nippondenso starter is what comes on Cummins engines in Dodge trucks as well as many other industrial applications such as Case tractors and backhoes. Only differences are mounting flanges for the different applications.
