I'm about to replace my starter. I see that "gear-reduction" starters are available, or I could go with OEM. Can anyone give me advice as to which starter is best for my IDI?

 

An OEM starter is gear reduction as well. So there is really not going to be a noticeable difference.

 

yeah,the oem is gear reduction.it's really what you want if you want it to last spinning over such high compression.
this was an easy one for me as there is a local auto zone and they have a reman oem with a lifetime warranty.part# 16561

 

Just did the same thing Saturday, starter is awesome.

9/16 gear wrench, 9/16 socket with swivel and extension, 17mm wrench for + terminal and 8mm socket for solenoid is what you will need.

 

db electrical, 4kw starter for idi engines, 2 bolt mounting, starts my co workers truck without glow plugs.
and the reason it says non turbo is to differentiate it from the powerstroke starter

DB Electrical - NEW STARTER FORD VAN F PICKUP TRUCK 7.3L NON-TURBO 1994

 

Thanks for your thoughts. There is a video on U-Tube featuring Interstate batteries and a gear reduction starter. The guy there swears by the gear reduction setup. My starter is mounted with three 13mm bolts. Pretty easy to get out once you know how to do it. My hands/wrists are small enough to find the hidden bolt head by going thru the exhaust pipe side then guiding the swivel socket with extension onto the bolt head.

 

DJ - Thanks for reminding me of Auto Zone. Originally I bought a starter there for about $140 in Charlotte, NC. I was on the road then & AAA put it in for me. After reading your response, I checked with Auto Zone here in FL. They said the reman. starter that I have has a "life-time-gurantee", so I hussled up there and traded the bad one for another reman. While there I asked about an upgrade. They sell a NEW Duralast Gold for $170 + $10 core charge. The reman was $140 + $50 core charge. I took the upgrade and they owed me $10. Nice deal!!! Now all I gotta do is crawl under the truck again and put it in!!

 

Nice. I had my original starter rebuilt, but then one day a few months back it just stopped working. I managed to grab one of the last Uhaul starters off ebay and it's been pretty good. Under $70 shipped kinda made it worth the chance.
Make sure you have good batteries, bad batteries will kill the starter.

 

Well, my "Great Deal" on the Duralast "Gold" starter ended up not being such a great deal. Auto Zone sold me the wrong starter. When you search IDI on their computer system, I gave them 1994 and they gave me the upgrade for the Power Stroke. It bolted into place, and whirrrrrddd like hell, but didn't engage. The Bendix wasn't throwing the gear far enough. So I went back to the reman.starter that I began with and installed it. (this is the 3rd starter AutoZone has provided me with their guarantee) With new batteries & starter the truck started right up, after purging the air. There are a couple of things I learned in this process by reading the various posts of other folks. 1) If you own a 1994, double check the part with the 1993 model. The new Duralast Gold starter was NOT an upgrade for the 1993 year. 2) Install a stud at the upper bolt hole so that you can just slide the starter onto it thus holding the starter in place, what a breeze to install rather holding that heavy starter in place while starting bolts. Because I installed the entire fuel & glow plug systems, I will need to fine tune those systems. The truck did start & idle so I left it at that for today, besides the football games were starting. I now need to brush up on the sequence of "tune-up" including the idle & fuel injection pump. Thanks again for all your posts in this thread and other threads. This info is invaluable to me. Don

 

yeah all owners with 1994's need to just pretend they have a '93 whenever walking into the parts house.whatever fits a '93 idi truck will be the correct part for the '94 idi trucks.
this avoids all risks of getting sold psd parts and avoids running back and forth.

the 3rd reman starter now? how long have they been lasting you? iv never had good luck with reman starters either but the price and warranty was right,plus it's not "that" hard to replace (20 mins and done.) so i wasn't too worried about replacing them every other year or so if need be.mines still working good.
installed July 2012 @ 94k miles.currently @ 108k miles.

 

New return lines, o-rings and a healthy glow plug system will go a long ways towards keeping a starter. I also highly recommend replacing the cables with 4/0 welding cable with soldered ends. The less voltage drop between the starter and battery the better.

 

DJ - Since '09, I've only been about 2K miles. We used to go camping alot, but heart problems have slowed us down considerably. A week in the hospital with docs looking into every orfice will change your outlook, I used to have alot of energy, but now I have very little, off & on. Now that I got it running, I've got to get it tuned up so it will run properly. Thanks to you and your posts I'll be able to figure it all out. If I can't, I'll be posting you. Thanks for all your help. Don