Today I decided to work on getting a spare starter for a big block (or manual trans small block with 11" flywheel) with the cast iron nose.
I purchased a nose with the fork recently. I had a couple of used starters here with the aluminum nose, so simple enough, just swap the iron nose onto one of them.
Nope. I put it all together, and the last step putting the solenoid on I find a snag. The barrel or whatever you would like to call it that slides inside the solenoid magnet won't fit into the solenoid. I try a number of times but even with the naked eye I can see there's no way it will go. Check the 2 used starters I have and both those fit into the solenoid perfectly. In way more decades than I care to admit, I've never encountered this. I would have lost money on a bet that all GM solenoids had the same inside diameter and all those barrels would be the same OD.
My one thought is, this is possibly an aftermarket starter nose because I see the fork is made in Taiwan. Anyway, I swapped the barrel over and all is good. Initially I tried to put the OEM fork and barrel assembly from the aluminum nose starter into the iron nose but the iron nose takes a different fork because of the way the nose is made in the pivot pin area. If you look at the fork picture you can see the difference.
Won't fit into the solenoid
But this one does
Comparing the 2 different ones
The difference in the forks, cast iron nose fork at the bottom, aluminum nose fork at the top
I seem to remember that the Mercruiser starter motors used a different solenoid. It looked the same as a Chevy solenoid but a Chevy one wouldnt fit. This was over thirty years ago and I remember the regular GM solenoid was about 8 or ten dollars and the marine one was three times the price.
I didnt know there was a different diameter, i have seen some shorter solenoids, with shorter plungers, not sure what the applications would have been tho.
And yes, i have seen both style forks, i think it just has to do with it being an aftermarket part, or maybe from a different year(more like a different decade)
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Beaumontguru
MY BEAUMONT HAS 4 STUDDED TIRES AND 2 BLOCKHEATERS......AND LOTS OF OIL UNDERNEATH. The other one has a longer roof.
