Just wanted to give a little advise to any who may want to embark on this path.
Since I have been buying Denso starters for about 17 years now, I'll tell you one drawback to doing it yourself. For any given model of Toyota honda etc, there are at least 3 starters, auto, manual, cold weather, california blah blah. Then there is denso and mitsuba. On top of that, the rebuild houses figure out what lester number[that 16xxx or 17xxx number] across years and sometimes models will work, and will sub those numbers for others if they are easier[or cheaper] to source.
Why do you care?
Well, you don't.
Unless when you go to trade that autozone unit in and all they have are mitsuba, or 1.2kW instead of the 1.4kW or donut back instead of silver body. Oh, and on top of that there are several different nose [drive end]castings for each unit, so if you buy the wrong one, it may have big holes when you go to machine it where it didn't when your friend did. Trust me, I have found this all out the hard way.
Now my company does not make the fiat unit pictured, and the reason is the size of the nose is so small it is difficult to use my method of manufacture[IOW machining an existing drive end housing rather than casting one] so you would have to use an extremely long neck starter[like the Camry starter in one pic] and a very hefty piece of aluminum to back it back out again. Expensive and time consuming.
Hell I own a machine shop and pallets full of starters and I would buy that if I owned an 850!
Please don't get me wrong, racers taught us how to do this conversion over 20 years ago, but most of them buy their starters done now, because they have other things to do with their time, and there are several companies making conversion starters [mine included]
Can it be a fun project if you have access to machine tools and some stock? Sure.
Is it 'cheap' or 'easy'?
uhhhhhhh.....that would be up to you.
Last warning. Putting unmodified starters in your car [starter from car x 'bolts right in'] is usually not the primo answer. Starters are designed to be located by the locating boss, not the bolt holes. Japanese starters never use the same size locating boss as Jag or Triumph etc. Either making or purchasing a custom starter allows you to machine the proper locating boss, and also clock the starter to the spot you want it so you do not have to take a hammer to the sheetmetal.
So, if you made it through this post, here is some somewhat useful information
Toyota Camry and boxer Subaru both use CCW starters. most all other Japanese starters are CW. parts are NOT compatible between ccw and cw so buy the right one to start.
Pick as late model a starter as you can, learn the Lester number, check that you are getting the proper unit for the lester number you want, there are non retail sources on the web that will show you true images for the units, rather than a generic starter picture.
If a starter is painted black all over, pass. Major reman houses always replate hardware and will only paint what was painted originally
Whatever path you choose, good luck with it.
Keith,
Gustafson Specialty Products
You could make an adapter block and bolt it to the starter ears and put the new mount holes where ever you want. The block's thickness will determine how far it goes in to mesh with the flywheel.
