High Torque Starter Review

When did Fiat make starters? I owned a couple of 124's back in the 70's and they both had Bosch starters on them.

 

The starters would have been made by Bosch but the ones delivered to the assembly line would have had FIAT markings on them as part of the OEM supply agreement. I have seen this a number of times on other cars where there are parts variations on the ones installed at the factory compared to the ones available as replacements at the dealerships even at the same time the cars are in production.

 

Interesting, had not seen that.

 

Thanks for the post....I have always found these starters interesting..


"geared starters" they are called??

Anyway if you are looking at a failed unit it's good to know!!
I have had good luck with local rebuilding shops, as "what you take off is what you get back" as opposed to the catalog data search!!

Our cars (mine are Bosch) do NOT match to a single unit in Pep Boys!
Crazy but true!!

 

Gear reduction starters as they are known are much smaller than the direct drive starters our cars were fitted with. They use a smaller motor coupled to a gear cluster to multiply torque. Depending on the car you have their advantages can be greater or smaller.

On a Dino the stock starter (even freshly re-built) turns the engine rather slowly. Yes it is enough to start the engine but if you have the slightest flood, or vapor lock there is rarely enough battery power available to turn the engine over enough to get it going. In the Dino world a gear reduction starter is a huge advantage and almost a must have.

On a 308 the stock starter turns the engine very well and the advantage of the added speed of the gear reduction starter is negligible at best. Where they are advantageous is that they are smaller and about 1/3-1/2 the price of a replacement starter. That said it is still more than the re-build cost to your stock starter. Not a knock on the gear reduction units just some information to help make a decision on.

 

I just got mine in the mail today!!! The plastic on my old starter where the wires connect was cracking from age and making a bad connection.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

+1, the rebuild costs on stock 308/328 starters (and alternators) is pennies as long as there is nothing majorly wrong - they are just full of standard Bosch parts. Nowhere near the cost of replacements.