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Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: thehackmechanic on Saturday,March 21, 2020, 12:24:50 PM

Title: Gear Reduction Starter: RD Versus British Starters?
Post by: thehackmechanic on Saturday,March 21, 2020, 12:24:50 PM

Looks like my TCS may need a starter. I'm looking at the ones RD and BritishStarters sell. RD's website says "Based on a top quality rebuilt Japanese starter. " I think I read somewhere that's Denso. Britishstarters.com doesn't specify whether theirs is new or rebuilt.

Any opinions? Cost is similar, with the one from BritishStarters a little cheaper as it includes shipping.

--Rob

Title: Re: Gear Reduction Starter: RD Versus British Starters?
Post by: buzzer on Saturday,March 21, 2020, 12:46:23 PM

I’ve got one of these.

https://www.powerlite-units.com/high-torque-starter-motors.html

Works well

Title: Re: Gear Reduction Starter: RD Versus British Starters?
Post by: BDA on Saturday,March 21, 2020, 12:53:01 PM

I have a stock TCS starter (less than 10,000 miles old) for $75 + shipping if you're interested.  :)

I don't have any experience with either of those (I have a Tilton's Super Starter I got from Dave Bean probably in the '80s. I would imagine they still sell them or an equivalent), but gear reduction starters are nice. The one draw back is trying to get oil pressure before starting a fresh motor because it spins the motor much slower.

I don't think you can go wrong with either of them.

Title: Re: Gear Reduction Starter: RD Versus British Starters?
Post by: jbcollier on Saturday,March 21, 2020, 02:35:33 PM

RD's worked well for me.

Title: Re: Gear Reduction Starter: RD Versus British Starters?
Post by: dakazman on Saturday,March 21, 2020, 03:15:28 PM

Installed mine from R&D but on a wedge. Can’t wait to test. The original was just to far gone.
Dakazman

Title: Re: Gear Reduction Starter: RD Versus British Starters?
Post by: Certified Lotus on Saturday,March 21, 2020, 06:06:40 PM

I’ve bought RD’s gear reduction starters for all my historic Lotus’. Never had a problem.

Title: Re: Gear Reduction Starter: RD Versus British Starters?
Post by: Type 74 on Thursday,March 26, 2020, 03:36:44 AM

Hi


I bought mine from British Starters. Has worked well for six years.

Title: Re: Gear Reduction Starter: RD Versus British Starters?
Post by: E Paul on Thursday,March 26, 2020, 06:58:27 AM

RD for quite some time. No issues at all. Much lighter too.

Title: Re: Gear Reduction Starter: RD Versus British Starters?
Post by: 1970EuropaGuy on Thursday,March 26, 2020, 07:11:04 AM

Using the RD as well. Lots of power, a huge improvement over the original.

Title: Re: Gear Reduction Starter: RD Versus British Starters?
Post by: surfguitar58 on Thursday,March 26, 2020, 01:47:52 PM

A while back I was having intermittent starter engagement and thought it was my RD starter, so I replaced it with a new one. Turns out it was a grounding issue. (Engine ground strap was missing entirely, so for over a year my starter ground connection was made through... what... the shift linkage? Everything else is rubber isolated.)

Bottom line: I have an extra RD starter with maybe 30 starts on it, though slightly disassembled. Happy to let it go cheap.

Tom