Hey there!

I may have bitten off more than I can chew on this one.

I am restoring a 1976 F100 custom, 390 big block and I’m ready to pull out my hair! I should probably add the fun fact that I live in Hawaii and before I found it, the truck had been sitting on the side of this old man’s house in about 5 feet of tall grass, rusting everything more or less solid, for the better part of the past decade. Needless to say, I have had my work cut out for me!
My engine is somehow in REMARKABLE condition, although I’m fairly certain it is not the original one. So far all the parts I’ve bought for the ‘76 fit perfectly. That is, until yesterday when I tried to install my new starter. It is just slightly wider than the original one I pulled out, and it appears that my headers are aftermarket & much larger than most diagrams I can find. (I could be mistaken though.)

I’m not really sure how to tackle this now. I tried unbolting the 4 visible bolts that mount the headers just below the spark plugs to see if I could get any wiggle room, but that, of course, would have been too simple. I’m clueless as to where to go from here. The only thing I can come up with would be to uninstall, or at least greatly loosen my exhaust system, but i don’t want to create other problems by going into this blind.

Any guidance or suggestions that anyone can offer me would be immensely appreciated!

Thanks!!

laura

 

Laura...you have four more bolts on the underside of the exhaust header. If you can get to them, the header and exhaust should move slightly to give you room. Alternatively, you could go with a compact, high torque starter....but you still gotta get the old one out!

 

You'll probably have to at least loosen all the header bolts . and you may have to pull the bolts at the collector so you can really move the header if this doesn't do it.

Be sure to check the gasket over good before you bolt the header back up, lots of time they come apart. if so replace it now so you aren't taking it loose again.

 

I have to pull the header bolts out of the head and take the bolts out of the collector whenever the starter comes out. Fortunately I've only had to do it 3 times in the 25 years I've owned the truck. I feel your pain, but that's what you need to do. Last time I did it I thought about getting a high torque mini starter and maybe I will when this one dies.
Mark.

 

Or you could just get a smaller body starter.....

 

Well a smaller more modern gear reduction starter is in order along with a full heat wrap of the starter.

 

I was thinking the later style smaller body ford starters but one of the small permanent magnet gear reduction units would do the job also, those would need heat wrapped the Ford gear reductions ones came with a heat shield for many applications..

Although the parts books do not list it there are several later smaller and gear reduction Ford starters that will fit the FE's

 

Anybody know which small starters will fit an FE? I know Summit has some for $200-300, but I'm wondering about what other make/model Fords have compatible, but smaller high torque starters.

 

Well, if there are factory starters on later model Fords that fit an FE, hours of internet searching has not yet discovered them. I have found a number of after market mini starters for the FE and the price point is typically 5x higher than that of any other Ford compatible starter. I assume they charge so much because they know if you have an FE, you don't have a lot of options. I did find one post where someone says they took a 2 bolt ford starter and swapped it into a 3 bolt case and it worked, but that would not be a mini starter then. The cheapest option I could find is about $100 on eBay and it was marketed as "gladiator performance." The cheapest on from Summit that is a mini FE starter for 184 teeth flex plate is about $185.

 

2.3L 4 cylinder application 92 mustang.

 

Thanks. Do you know if it matters that the stock starter supposedly has 9 teeth and that Mustang starter has 10?

 

The gear reduction units had 10 teeth due to the larger diameter drive gear. So yes they interchange.

 

I use the CVR Pro Torque (CVR -5049) - Mini starter with my Sanderson Headers without to much issue on my 390. The biggest headache is that the necessary "clocking" of the starter doesn't allow clearance for one of the two bolts that hold it in. So, I had to install a stud and slip a nut in the small space available to tighten it up. I also had to fabricate a jumper to make it a single wire connection.The old original starter is an absolute beast compared to a new modern starter. The mini seems to crank away just fine when the truck has sat and the carb is short on gas. It was $242 last year at Summit. The beast now sits on a shelf.

It has been a while since I dug into the tooth count issue, but I recall their being two different teeth counts. I can't recall if it was specific to flywheel vs. flexplate or vintage. You need to know which count you have to buy the correct aftermarket starter.