The starter saga continues

So at the beginning of the Summer I planned on replacing the original Lucas M35J starter with the Ford starter recovered from the Zetec engine. This was going to require a custom made mount to bolt to the transmission and the engine. It also required hacking up the bellhousing to make everything fit. I opted to have the Lucas starter modified with a new starter drive instead. This should have been the most straight forward fix. I was wrong.

First the engine wouldn't fire, after all the stuff I've already covered. I assumed that this may have been from the starter being no good. I tore the Lucas starer apart, and cleaned out all of the 30 year old gunk. The first thing I found was that the brushes on the rear of the motor were so gummed up with old grease and grime that they were not floating on the springs like they should be. Some degreaser took care of this. I also found that one of the wires integral to the solenoid was broken from the quick disconnect terminal. This could have been causing the problem as well. So, resoldered the connections, and reinstalled the starter.

A quick check of the install, and I found that the starter was pulling about 10 amps without being turned on. Something is seriously wrong now. This was the last straw with fighting with this starter. It was time to purchase a new one, and make it work with the transmission.

So, I found this starter by Summit Racing (Part Number SUM-820055). I is supposed to be for a V8 Ford. It has the wrong number of teeth (11 instead of 10). However, the key part of this starter is that is has a removable plate on the front. This plate is designed so that you can rotate the starter in relation to your engine so that you can clear anything else that may interfere.

So using Google Sketchup, I mocked up a replacement plate. I used the bolt holes from the starter itself, and the bolt holes from the Lucas starter that match the bellhousing. I then printed it out at 1:1 scale, and matched all the holes up to their respective real-life mate. Everything lines up.

Next, to the Bridgeport!