Starter Recomendations

ja_cain · Feb 12, 2016

My starter is starting to make all kinds of clunking noises. This morning it we old not stay engaged long enough to start the truck. Did a little bit of research and some people say to go with the planetary gear reduction starters and other folks like the db brand. I'm thinking the gear reduction may present a problem if the truck needs to turn over at a certain speed for one reason or another. Also, i would like to get one local if I can. Thanks in advance for any advice/recomendations.

Btw, did anyone ever get around to trying a 6.4 starter? If so, was it easy to install and did you notice a huge difference?

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PDT1081 · Feb 12, 2016

I had the DB starter on my 7.3. Lasted a year. Replaced that with the NAPA gear reduction starter, for less money, and it was still going strong 4 years later when I got rid of the truck.

ja_cain · Feb 12, 2016

PDT1081 said:
I had the DB starter on my 7.3. Lasted a year. Replaced that with the NAPA gear reduction starter, for less money, and it was still going strong 4 years later when I got rid of the truck.

Thanks for the info! I've heard they are hit or miss. The Napa one was another that had favorable reviews. Was it a reman (Napa)?

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Northwoods2002 · Feb 12, 2016

My truck couldn't keep a 2-bolt starter in it if its life depended on it. I had the starter literally fall out a half dozen times. Chase bolt holes, clean them, even used red loctite, nothing could keep a 2-bolt in.

Switched to the OBS style 3-bolt and have been fine ever since. It was -2 degrees out this morning and my truck started just fine (WTS light off and cranked, no additional time waited).

PDT1081 · Feb 12, 2016

ja_cain said:
Thanks for the info! I've heard they are hit or miss. The Napa one was another that had favorable reviews. Was it a reman (Napa)?

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The gear reduction ones were only available brand new then. You will want a new one. The reman has a core charge. The way the store is here, the only core they'll accept is an identical starter. I bought a caliper kit from there and had to bring in a caliper and the bracket to get credit for the core.
http://m.napaonline.com/parts/PartsDetail.aspx?k=NNE4N6770_0358395199

79jasper · Feb 12, 2016

Most people don't like parts store starters, but I got the only new (Not rebuilt) one from autozone. Been going strong. Even after having bad glowplugs and fuel issues.

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ja_cain · Feb 12, 2016

Thanks everyone for the info. I'm leaning towards the Napa gr model. It's a little more expensive than I wanted to spend, but I don't want to be pulling this thing very often.

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ja_cain · Feb 13, 2016

79jasper said:
Most people don't like parts store starters, but I got the only new (Not rebuilt) one from autozone. Been going strong. Even after having bad glowplugs and fuel issues.

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I went with this one. They had a 20% off coupon for Valentines day if I shipped to the house. It was just under $160 and has a limited lifetime warranty.

dsberman94 · Feb 13, 2016

79jasper said:
Most people don't like parts store starters, but I got the only new (Not rebuilt) one from autozone. Been going strong. Even after having bad glowplugs and fuel issues.

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Same here. Only have a year and a half on it but no issues. Held the key for well over 30 seconds straight last winter and it finally started with no GPs or block heater. Still going good.

ja_cain · Feb 13, 2016

dsberman94 said:
Same here. Only have a year and a half on it but no issues. Held the key for well over 30 seconds straight last winter and it finally started with no GPs or block heater. Still going good.

Holy fook, 30 seconds?!?! I hope it turns out to be a decent starter. At least there are Autozones everywhere and the starters aren't that bad to remove. It will be interesting to see what the voltages look like when I'm turning the motor over on cold mornings. Batteries are pretty new and recently it was dipping below 10 volts.

dsberman94 · Feb 13, 2016

ja_cain said:
Holy fook, 30 seconds?!?! I hope it turns out to be a decent starter. At least there are Autozones everywhere and the starters aren't that bad to remove. It will be interesting to see what the voltages look like when I'm turning the motor over on cold mornings. Batteries are pretty new and recently it was dipping below 10 volts.

Yea. At least a 30 second hold on it. Temps were in the negatives for days and I let it sit for over 24 hours. And this was last winter. And like I said no glow plugs or block heater. She started but wasn't happy about it. I run 2 die hard platinum batteries and the brand new autozone starter. I want to look into a gear reduction one next though. I had a very cold start Thursday after it sitting for 12 hours even with glow plugs and the headlights were dimming so I shut them off until it fired. Just gave it that little extra it may have needed. The insight doesn't turn on until it's started unless I touch the screen so I don't know what it's doing unless there's an issue and I turn the insight on.

ja_cain · Feb 20, 2016

Put the new Autozone starter in today and holy chit! This thing turns it over like it's no bodies business. Should be interesting to see how she does with oil temps in the 20's. Voltage was dipping below 10 even after topping the batteries off the night before with the tender. Batteries are almost new Megatron Pluses. May add an extra 2/0 ground from the starter to the frame for extra insurance.

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dsberman94 · Feb 20, 2016

It'll still get slow with cold oil. I got the same one and it was still slower with 2 brand new platinums. But I kinda expect it.

ja_cain · Feb 20, 2016

dsberman94 said:
It'll still get slow with cold oil. I got the same one and it was still slower with 2 brand new platinums. But I kinda expect it.

Your temps get much lower than mine though. I feel pretty confident that it is going to turn over much faster now. The voltage was dropping so much before that the injectors weren't firing.

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cbf9703 · Feb 20, 2016

ja_cain said:
Your temps get much lower than mine though. I feel pretty confident that it is going to turn over much faster now. The voltage was dropping so much before that the injectors weren't firing.

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Hope it works out for ya!

79jasper said:
Most people don't like parts store starters, but I got the only new (Not rebuilt) one from autozone. Been going strong. Even after having bad glowplugs and fuel issues.

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I know you've already got yours taken care of Justin, but just to throw it out there for the thread... All of my trucks have gotten an O'Reillys starter (mostly because of the discount we had lol) if they went out. Had to warranty one probably 6 years ago within 2 weeks, but the replacement is still on there and haven't had any issues with the others.

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ja_cain · Feb 21, 2016

cbf9703 said:
Hope it works out for ya!

I know you've already got yours taken care of Justin, but just to throw it out there for the thread... All of my trucks have gotten an O'Reillys starter (mostly because of the discount we had lol) if they went out. Had to warranty one probably 6 years ago within 2 weeks, but the replacement is still on there and haven't had any issues with the others.

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Thanks Frank! We'll see. I like the fact that it was a brand new one. I'm going to take the old one and have it rebuilt be a reputable place as a backup.

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