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High Torque Starter

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Is your car pre- or post-TS50,000? Or, more importantly, which flywheel does it have?

I've been using one of the gear drive starters from TRF for quite a few years, and I'm pleased with it. Not a moment's trouble since installation over 10 years ago.

The only caveat is that you have to get the one that matches your flywheel. If your ring gear is held on with bolts, you need the starter with the 10 tooth pinion gear. The earlier pressed-on ring gear takes a 9 tooth pinion. I have a later flywheel on my 56 (originally on my 59), so I have the later version starter as well.

Sometimes it will work at first, if you get mismatched starter & flywheel. But not for long ...
 
Just to extend what Randall said, it is worth spend a couple extra dollars to get one from a firm that knows our cars.

You'll like having it installed.
 
I have an IMS gear-reduction starter on my Porsche 912 and I like it fine. It's overkill, for sure, but my starter had died, and the alternative was to get a rebuilt starter from who knows where or install a new, high-quality IMS one. So many rebuilt electrical components are trash--so I went for the IMS. It is really a beautifully made component.

I will say that the Moss price is pretty high. I paid about $250 for the Porsche one, and we Porsche people usually get reamed for replacement parts. Look around a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get it at least $60-$70 cheaper, maybe more.
 
tntriumph59 said:
The engine number is a TS55027E. The starter I have is for over a TS5000. I think I should be good.
Click to expand...
In that case, then the answer to your original question is "Yes". The post-50K starter stuck out past the ring gear, so the Bendix drive was actually on the transmission side. The gear-drive replacement uses a more conventional layout, with the pinion gear moving in from the engine side (and thus avoiding that long, unsupported shaft).

This also means that it is working on the side of the ring gear without the bevel on the gear teeth. The bevel is important for a Bendix-type starter, because the pinion gear is already spinning rapidly when it hits the ring gear. But the gear-drive starters are a "pre-engaged" design, meaning the gears are meshed by a solenoid, before the motor starts turning. Because of that, they work fine from the other side.
 
FWIW, I wired mine a bit differently than most do. I wanted to keep the function of the rubber button on the back of the original solenoid, but wasn't confident of its ability to continue carrying full starter current. (Some of the smoke had leaked out during misadventures with the original starter.) I also didn't want the increased current of the new solenoid flowing through the original pushbutton on the dash.

So, I attached the heavy starter lead to the "hot" terminal of the original solenoid, and ran a new wire from the "load" terminal of the original solenoid to the small terminal on the starter (the new solenoid). That way, the new solenoid gets to switch the starter motor current; the old solenoid only has to handle the (12 amps or so) for the new solenoid.
 
<span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="color: #009900">Most models have adjustment bolts on the face plate. The purpose is to orient the electrical connectors for easy access to the battery, Lucas solenoid, etc. Be sure these bolts are super tight, even if you don't need to adjust them. I found out the hard way that the factory didn't torque them down
hitorquestarter.jpg
</span></span>
 
The way I wired it was to bring the thick lead from the original solenoid to the top terminal on the starter. I then jumpered a wire from the top terminal (the same I terminated the thick lead to), and jumpered from the terminal to a spade connector. This is what the directions said to do in order to keep the original solenoid.
 
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