starter needed, which type?

[LCAM-01XA]

Three choices available:
- Mitsubishi offset gearing
- Mitsubishi planetary gearing
- Nippon-Denso with whole motor offset

Truck has the offset-gear Mitsu now, but it's very dead (all of sudden too w/o any warnings at all, one day it worked the next day it just clicks and refuses to spin altogether). Both Mitsu types are 3.6 kW rated, the Denso is 2.5 kW usually. Lots of folks here rave about how fast their engines crank with the Densos, but that was never a problem for our offset-gears Mitsu either (if batts were good she'd spin pretty quick), and IIRC there were some durability concerns about them raised at some point (don't recall by who and what exactly they were). No time to wait for delivery from BD Electrical, gotta be something locally-quick with lifetime warranty. So in your opinion, which of the three types listed above would be best?

Thanks!

 

[towcat]

i'm of the older full nosecone Mitsu crowd. they can take a voltage drop and amp spike without a thermonuclear meltdown on the armature. ND's are particularly sensitive to voltage drops and will turn into a puddle of copper faster than a Mitsu will.
problem is these days is finding a good rebuilt mitsu.

 

[towcat]

btw....if your starter wasn't dragging a few days before, you might be able to get away with just changing out the solenoid.

 

[Black dawg]

It has been awhile since I did the test, but I took a new 3.6kw offset mitsu, and new nippondenso 2.5kw and compared them back to back. cranking speed and amp draw were nearly identical. I left the denso on my truck, as it cured the intermittent grind that it seems most of these trucks have.

There is a 4kw denso available for the idi now, not sure on quality though.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Towcat, that's exactly what the durability concern with the NDs was, I remember now. Yes, somewhat faster cranking speed is not worth the chance of a meltdown when batteries go low, at least in my book. And notice I said "when", and not "if", it's pretty much 110% guaranteed that they will flatline at some point or another, only takes leaving one light switch on and walking away for a few days...

No the starter was not dragging at all, I don't think so - drove it last night actually and it had no problems at all, it was today when we went to move it when we found out it was DOA. So I guess tomorrow we'll split the starter and see what's going on inside - it's already out and ready to be turned in as a core, so no big deal if we damage it in the process. Would be nice if just a solenoid fixes it but I kinda doubt that, starter is probably around 10 years old at this point, and while the in lats few it was only used like once a week if that, there's probably still quite a bit of wear and tear in it... But, like I said, worth a shot taking it apart anyways, the $100 difference in cost will buy quite a bit of fuel for the beast

Black Dawg, good to know of thr cranking speed. The lower draw of the NDs is appealing in that you can get more crank time out of the batteries, but ours are new as is and we're adding a 3rd one soon so the risk of low-voltage damage is not worth the benefit of lower draw. The 4kW starter Typ4 says he's had pretty good luck with them, but those are online only deal, we wanna be up and running tomorrow - got places to be and things to do ya know, vacation only comes in so many times a year

 

[IDIoit]

i will be purchasing one of these next time i need one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Powermaster...ar:1993|Make:Ford&hash=item5aeb6e1809&vxp=mtr

 

[tbrumm]

I have the Powermaster 9050 that IDIOT mentions above in my truck (been in there about 3 years now) and it has been great. Russ (TYP4) has posted in the past that he has had good results with the 4KW DB electrical starter http://www.dbelectrical.com/p-8477-new-starter-ford-van-f-pickup-truck-73l-non-turbo-1994.aspx

Here is the link to the 4kw starter http://www.dbelectrical.com/p-8477-new-starter-ford-van-f-pickup-truck-73l-non-turbo-1994.aspx

 

[junk]

I have db electric starters and have had good luck. Next one I get will be the 4KW that typ4 discusses.

 

[jim_22]

I had an old caddie, the starter would occasionally freeze but if you tapped it with a hammer (thus jarring the brushes) it would take on another life.

 

[jhenegh]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Y85FSI...TF8&colid=3E1PECZ3FN9LE&coliid=I3N25V6F6PAZGU

I always just kept this saved on my amazon. No experience with it.

 

[Bashby]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Y85FSI...TF8&colid=3E1PECZ3FN9LE&coliid=I3N25V6F6PAZGU

I always just kept this saved on my amazon. No experience with it.

I put one of those on in November, it worked fine at first, but now when hot it sometimes just clicks when I try to crank it. Usually starts on the second or third time, a couple times it took 6-8 tries. I haven't inquired about getting it warrantied yet.

 

[Agnem]

I know you can't get them any more, but I'd take a factory Delco unit over all those others. Mine is 32 years old and still cranking after 120,000 miles.

 

[typ4]

4kw from napa
# NAE 17818

lester number which any AP should be able to cross
190-838

 

[LCAM-01XA]

I had an old caddie, the starter would occasionally freeze but if you tapped it with a hammer (thus jarring the brushes) it would take on another life.

First thing we tried! No go. Would rather have it fixed properly anyways, cause who knows where we'll be when it quits again, this time for good.

4kw from napa
# NAE 17818

lester number which any AP should be able to cross
190-838

Napa's own website does not find any of those numbers, but Google does! So how does this starter hold up to low-battery conditions, does it tend to damage itself like Towcat's experience has been with the other Nippon-Denso starters?

 

[LCAM-01XA]

OK Russ, how does your local NAPA parts person find those starters in their system? I just talked to the nearest NAPA store, and the NAE 17818 number doesn't come up as nothing for them. Which is what happens if I go to napaonline.com and put it in there. But if I google NAE 17818 the first link that shows up is the correct NAPA page for the starter. But that works for me, not the NAPA people. So how do they find it so they can at least price-check the thing, let alone order one possibly? Would it be in their brick-sized paper catalogs maybe?