Hey all

Whats everyone’s opinion on the best starter? Autozone is the easiest, are all pretty much the same ?

 

Personally, I steer clear of AutoZone. O'Reilly's is my brick and mortar store of choice. A lot of people like Rock Auto as an online parts source. Starters for Rx-7's are mostly rebuild / refurbished units now a days, thats what your purchasing from the corner auto parts store. Companies like Bosh and Mitsubishi are the actual manufactures of starters and alternators.

I still prefer to take mine off the car to a local automotive electrical rebuild shop to have mine re built without the middle man or core charges. Unfortunately in todays disposable society, these local places are becoming extinct because more and more people think they need to get a "new" one from the local parts store. Mitsubishi provided Mazda with its original starter. If I was purchasing another, I'd get the same model as that.

 

I too repair my own starters,alternators and i 2nd staying away from Autozone. All their remans are labeled Duralast and Duralast Gold and are reboxed from Cardone who is their supplier and supplier for Advance Auto ,O Reillys and some other chain parts stores.
45+ years in the trade and i have found the Cardone line of distributors/alternators/starters/water and power steering pumps/brake calipers....are garbage and best used as a door stop.. Lifetime warranty means just that,replacing their junk for the rest of the time you own the vehicle.

NAPA top of the line parts are often supplied by Beck Arnley and good quality. That brand line and Denso,AC Delco are better quality remans carried on RockAuto site. Some electrical items can be had new from those rebuilders too.

 

I get that, problem is I’m doing an auto-manual conversion. I’ll need a manual starter, use the auto one as a core as I’ve been told they’re different.

 

I get your situation,advice still stands.
I didn’t reference the core issue as it’s not really an issue. Your current starter is now Mazda art,embrace it.

What I would do is..purchase the best starter you can source,you are expecting it to work every time you turn the key. It is one of three big components in your electrical system. The other two are battery and alternator.

A failure of any of them will leave you unable to get home or leave in 1st place. Anytime you wish to go anywhere,you need all three to function properly,

I know all the remans you are looking at tout a warranty. I’m a one and done type person and having to replace a best quality part I could source peeves me,customer or my own vehicle and statistically the best quality parts fail the least.
Consider the location of starter on car,not hard to replace,but pain in the butt to repetitively use the warranty on a starter you’ll eventually regret purchasing.

Get a good quality starter,either new or reman and take the $30 hit on core charge.

Give your auto starter a clean and paint and use it for a conversation piece or test it to be known good,do the former and put it on the bay of e or classified section of this site for sale. There are less of them around and someone will need one at some point and may erase that $30 core charge.

 

I’d call that sound advise. The auto starter works fine.

 

i'll third that. there are a bunch of places that do remans, and most are not very good.

the good news is that parts are actually easy to get, and inexpensive for the stock starters https://www.aspwholesale.com/starter...itsubishi.html

if you need a different starter than the one you have, sometimes you need to get a reman from somewhere, and possibly rebuild that.

i bought a bosch reman last year for an FC i was building, the car didn't come with a starter at all (the one i'm building now ended up with two starters, cars in boxes are fun). the good news is that it was the 2kw version, the bad news was that the solenoid was bad, so i had to buy a new one....

 

Since you don't have one yet, I'd get a reman to start with. Looks like the auto starters have larger power rating then manual. Wonder if you can swap the auto guts with the manual case?

I have an electric motor rebuild shop close to where I work because of all the local farmers that need a service like this.They rebuilt my alternator. Buying a reman would have been cheaper, but they can build to whatever spec I need.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...92227&jsn=2261

 

Why not just get a used starter from eBay? Heck there are some old stock remans on eBay for around $50.

Worst case, the starter fails in a year and you have a core to turn in.

 

The automatic starters are bigger to capacity to turn over the torque converter. They are physically larger on the motor end, while stubbier on the pinion gear side. Here is a pic comparing the two.




A quick check on eBay and here's an OEM one for a manual.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Mazda-...ox!52722!US!-1

Matt Peters parts Rx-7 fairly regularly and is a honest seller. So you have an auto starter? I'b be interested in it if you want to get rid of it.

 

I have been buying starters off of ebay for my race car and they have been fine. I know this is not the same as a street car that sees allot of use but so far they are starting my race car (which is not always easy). They are also cheap. So I bought two so that I have a spare.

I use FC NA manual starters instead of an FB starter because of fitment issues with my Jerico transmission. But there are some advantages with this. FC starters are lighter and they spin the engine over faster.

 

FC starters sound wrong in an FB or SA but they sure do spin the engine up faster.

Especially if you pop the case off and shine up the commutator with emery paper. Make sure the brushes can move freely, every dead RX-7 starter I've had died because the brushes were seized. Because they are made out of something akin to pencil lead, they are very easy to damage in the process of trying to free them up again.

 

Mazda original starter>>>+18 years. But the car obviously sat quite a while before I bought it.
AdvanceAuto, AutoZone, and Kragen >>>>lasted about 2 years
NAPA>>>>so far it has lasted 12 years.

 

the starters were made by Mitsubishi, and the FC through the 2008 Rx8 starters share guts. basically you keep the nose you need (FC/FD and Rx8 are different), and just run the 2kw guts.

i'm not sure about the SA-FB guts, i just haven't looked.

basically the 2kw starter spins the engine closer to 300rpm, does it need it? no. is it nice? yes

 

Interesting thread. I wonder if Miata NA starters can swap into an SA unmodified or with the SA nose swapped in? Would a Miata NA starter spin faster as well? Too many questions and no answers.

 

NA miata uses a different family, and its completely different.

 

Just my theory based on info posted here.

Looks like a FC NA manual starter might fit the FB. Since the guts to the RX-8 auto will fit in the FC manaul housing, this might work on a FB. I might buy a couple this summer and give it a try.

 

My original 1982 starter (MT) finally started to give me problems closer to the end of this season. it would randomly give me the 'click but no turn over'. Seemed to be more frequent if the car sat all day or all night.

My volt meter would register lowering battery voltage, and the solenoid would feel slightly warm after repeated attempts of trying to turn over. What worked best would be to to try it several times then hold the key to start for 5seconds and it would finally go.

I ordered a replacement starter from Rockauto. REMY WD16268. (8 tooth). (My 1982 starter is 11 thooth).

This reman replacement seemed even worse. After installing it I tried to start the car and it slowly turned the engine over and made a terrible sound. After a few tries I gave up and re-installed the original and lived with it until the end of the summer.

I just took my original starter apart and the only unusual thing I found was the brush end of the starter was filled with a huge amount of black dust. Like a surprising amount, more than what I thought brush wear would produce. I wonder if the dust was fouling up the brushes and commutator. Commutator bars are in decent shape but are pitted.

So fed up at this point, I am thinking of going to a S4 N/A starter. They are gear reduction and since they are newer, hopefully can get better quality Reman.

Found this thread with info, confirming bolt in with exception of the long bolt hole that isn't threaded. Maybe can install a helicoil in it so we can use our FB long bolt instead of getting new hardware?
https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...arters-812995/

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Yes, you have to replace the long bolt with one that is longer so that a nut can be used. Cannot remember the measurement but I found one on eBay that I think was from a Polaris snowmobile or something.

 

j9fd3s will probably agree with me here when I say I think the perfect starter for our cars would consist of an S4 NA nose and an RX-8 2kW motor. Highest tooth count and biggest motor with highest torque. Easy starts every time. Good idea to replace your battery cables with new thick ones as well.

I had a very low mile good condition FD starter and a high mile FC starter that cranked slow and would get warm quickly. I swapped the FC nose onto the FD motor and Viola! Faster cranks and the motor doesn't get all hot and bothered. It sounds like a stuck pig now, but I don't mind. The next thing I want to try is a 2kW motor but so far so good on the 1.4kW or whatever the FC and FD are.

 

So S4 is the way to go. I shouldn't have bothered with a reman SA/FB starter.

Regarding long FB bolt, ours is 130mm long M10x1.5 (coarse thread for aluminum). So a S4 will need 150mm bolt. Original hole is too large to helicoil but could maybe use an insert in it.

Maybe ACDELCO is decent:

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...92317&jsn=2221

 

I'm gonna need a starter for my gsl se. About every 3rd time I drive the car the starter drive hangs up on the flywheel. I want a direct replacement and would rather not swap bolts etc. I tried the links here on this thread. NAPA doesn't carry a replacement anymore.ASP wholesale doesn't have them anymore. Rock Auto has the ac Delco but they are back ordered. Both Rock Auto and Advanced auto carry a Bosch SR274X. Anyone had any experience with the Bosch?

 

the last Bosch i bought was dead in the box and needed a new solenoid. rebuild your starter, its cheaper and result will be better

 

When it comes to the point a starter replacement is necessary,always test the starter before bolting it in the car.New/reman doesn't matter,saves some swear words when you turn the key after thinking you're all done. Jumper cables and screwdriver all that's needed.

 

I may go this way. But will have to order a drive from Rock auto ( $80 plus shipping) , wait for it to get here, and then ,of course, rebuild it. Problem is that this is my daily driver, and I'd prefer to replace the starter in an hour or so.