Chris,

Because your Amazon find sounded sooooo tempting, I wrote to the vendor today to ask if this starter was a genuine Mitsu. His reply appears as the second answer in the Q&A section of this page (scroll down a ways):
https://www.amazon.com/Starter-Power..._cd_al_qh_dp_t

Saving the trouble of going to the link, the reply was: "It is aftermarket, (other) not genuine Mitsubishi".


Which is really too bad, as this would have been a heckuva deal, especially if it were the M8T50072!

That doesn't make that one a bad product, it just causes a suspicion within me as to its build quality and potential longevity and reliability.

My local shop tells me that the OEM PLGR unit has very hard brushes and commutator ring segments, and last an incredibly long time. What almost always is the problem is the solenoid assembly that's a part of it. It's available separately (LINK), and combined with adding some grease to the planetary set, is all that's usually necessary to double their useful lives.

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This is the same reason why I wrapped my starter in foil covered fiberglass, to protect that solenoid assembly from the heat of the exhaust manifold collector directly above it. Not sure if it does any good or not, but I'm still on my original 3 bolt Mitsu. If nothing else, the wrap keeps the starter very clean and shiny!

I first put the wrap on about 15 years ago. I just recently replaced the wrap with a new one. The heat down there was brutal enough to eventually melt the adhesive of the original wrap to the point of disintegration. Just think if the solenoid had been exposed all that time to the heat baking and brittlizing whatever conformal coatings are inside that solenoid to isolate circuits.

I adhered the old aluminumized wrap to a sheet of insulating rubber, since the wrap was conductive. The new wrap uses sewn in, sturdily stiched Velcro instead of adhesive. I still kept the rubber insulator, which survived likely due to the protection of the old foil/fiberglass wrap, and put the new Velcro foil fiberglass wrap over it. If it lasts another 15 years or so, that'll suit me just fine.

 

What a good idea!

Can you elaborate a bit of what product you used as a wrap, and the rubber?

No, don't go getting photos. It's COLD outside!

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I knew you'd like that one, Mr. Marv the Mods for Longevity Man. I've done dozens of little things like that, and yet somehow haven't gotten around to tackling the more obvious preventative mods that you have long ago taken care of. I'll get there, little by little. I have photos of Version 1, but not of Version 2. I should probably take a few for the record anyway, so that when I'm too feeble to fix things myself, I'll have a record to point to. I'll post the pics here after I get a chance to take them.

 

I would like to see the pictures as well.

 

As requested...





You can see the rubber insulator peeking out in front of and behind the stitched velco foil fiberglass starter wrap. This is version II. On the earlier version that held successfully in service for 15 years, the foil fiberglass wrap was self adhesive, and covered ALL of the rubber, end to end. But recently, the adhesive finally gave out, no doubt due to the heat from the close proximity to the collector end of the exhaust manifold, combined with my larger downpipe, a little bit of which can be seen in the upper left hand corner of the photo below:




I'm glad all that heat was cooking the foil fiberglass adhesive, instead of my starter solenoid. If you look above the exhaust manifold, you'll see there is a lot of other foil under my hood. Looks a little bit like the space shuttle. Since foil is a very effective radiant reflector of light and heat, I liberally leverage foil's natural characteristic to keep heat away from wherever I would prefer it not soak in. The starter solenoid was one of my targets for a little extra protection, harkening back to the days of no hot starts in my van of the late '70s.

Below is a close up of the dual layer strata of foil and fiberglass used on a wiring harness routed near the exhaust manifold. Ignore the upper paragraph of the yellow text, and pay attention to the lower paragraph for the brand names of sources for the foil fiberglass products.





As for the rubber insulator, it is entirely V grooved across it's entire face on one side... the side you cannot see. That's because that side is the inside of the "cylinder" that is formed around the starter. You see the outside of that "cylinder", where the rubber is smooth. Why? I selected V grooved rubber so that the insulator would more naturally want to stay closed into a cylinder. The V grooves provide all the "relief cuts" needed for the net thickness of the rubber to collapse tighter on the inside than on the outside of the wrap.

This V grooved black rubber material is actually commercial floor/carpet runner, and the grooves are non-slip, feet wiping, water routing channels. I also use this mat on top of my tool carts, as it is more durable than the stuff the tool cart companies sell for their tool carts, and the grooves permit oil drippings to drain away from tips of the Vs, where new things can be set on the cart and remain more or less unaffected by the oily things that were resting there before.

 

Is this a genuine unit? Thinking of trying one.

 

Please read Post #46, above.

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Marv, Osmond4x4 is referring to a different vendor than you are.

Post 46 is where it was determined that a seller on Amazon called "Quality Solutions" is selling a fake look alike knock off Mitsu.

However, Osmond4x4's question refers to a different vendor, not on Amazon, but one who is selling through their own site, called Nation's.

I think that the best way to find out what Nation's is selling is to ask Nation's directly. And be sure to do so, because...

Nation's DOES indeed sell fake knock offs from China. And Nation's DOESN'T necessarily disclose that fact upfront on their advertised web listings. You have to call up Adam at Nations to ask directly. For example, I wanted to buy a Leece Neville alternator, in part because they are (mostly) made in USA. Nation's shows the alternator I wanted on their website. The photo is indistinguishable from the real deal. In fact, it is the Leece Neville photo/artwork. And the price was good. Almost too good. Still quite high, as alternators go, but lower than many competing vendors. So I had to contact them and ask.

Thankfully, they told the truth, and quickly followed up with an offer to sell me the real deal genuine Leece Neville (at a higher price). I declined, because I firmly believe that vendors should disclose up front if they are selling replica knock offs at the very outset. It shouldn't require a consumer to have to initiate a phone call, or a question in the Q&A, in order to determine such a basic question about a product. Vendors instead choose to allow less savvy customers to be hoodwinked into believing that they are buying the genuine article... and even if the customers come to realize that it isn't once the box arrives. By then, however, they really need that starter or alternator, and it doesn't matter if it were made by Martians orphaned on the Moon... a new starter is a new starter, let's get it installed, get the truck up and running, hope for the best, and not bother with all this who pays for shipping on a return bs.

So "omission" in advertising works for the vendor, without being in blatant violation of any Truth in Advertising laws. This effectively shifts the burden on us to waterboard the vendors we deal with to extract whatever information is "omitted" from their presentation of the product online. I think that was Marv's point by referring back to post #46.

But to be fair to Nation's, we can't assume that whatever "Quality Solutions" is selling is the same as what Nation's is selling. The best thing to do is contact Nation's and be very clear in asking about who the manufacturer of the actual item on their webpage is (reman Mitsu, Made in Japan Mitsu, knock off new Mitsu, if so, by who, etc).

When enough of us demand better disclosure BEFORE purchase, vendors might tire of fielding so many inquiries, and save themselves some staff time by posting the information up front.

 

Did Chris edit his post to reflect a different vendor? It seems to me that when I originally clicked on his posted link that it took me to Amazon, not Nation's.

That's what prompted me to ask the Amazon vendor.

Getting old (and apparently senile) ain't for sissys!

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I didn't edit the post but stranger things do happen. Yes, It should point to Nations website: Nation Starter & Alternator,Tractor Auto,Marine,Truck,Small Engine

The starter is "a genuine" unit as far as I know. All $229+ of it...

 

Hmmmmm, it musta' come out of Left Field somewhere.....

Common wisdom tells us that it's the second thing to "go".

At that price point, it's legit Mitsu, and should be a good one!

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