New starter

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73Charger318

73Charger318

Member Rt 66 Mopar Club
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Has anyone put a new starter on an early Dart without any drama? The one I bought was for an early 90's Dakota. Both wires coming off the starter relay are too short to reach the new terminals, and the black wires connector won't even fit over the new starters stud if it was long enough. Most of the others I'm looking at appear to have the terminals to far away from my relay to reach them. What am I missing? Thanks!

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You'll gain a couple inches by pulling the terminal extensions off. Might be enough.
 
73Charger318 said:
I wondered if there was a way to move the terminals, but I'm not sure what you mean here.
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The extensions are covered by the plastic cover (red circle). Look closely at it, you will see how it pops off. Unbolt the extensions at the actual starter terminals (yellow arrows, under plastic cover) and attach your cables there, if they reach.
As far as a clockable starter goes, it would be much cheaper to just put longer cables on it. Which may not be the worst idea anyways, rather than trying to keep using 50+ year old cables.
 
What is wrong with the original gear reduction style starter? They lasted 50 plus years.
 
Professor Fate said:
View attachment 1715836708
The extensions are covered by the plastic cover (red circle). Look closely at it, you will see how it pops off. Unbolt the extensions at the actual starter terminals (yellow arrows, under plastic cover) and attach your cables there, if they reach.
As far as a clockable starter goes, it would be much cheaper to just put longer cables on it. Which may not be the worst idea anyways, rather than trying to keep using 50+ year old cables.
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I don't think they'll reach there, but thanks for the detailed info. Battery cable is new. The black ignition wire would be no problem replacing with new, as it's a single wire coming from the relay. It looks like the best I could do with the red battery wire would be to cut it after it comes off the relay and do new wire from there to the stud.
 
RustyRatRod said:
What is wrong with the original gear reduction style starter? They lasted 50 plus years.
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Absolutely nothing. As a matter a fact the one on the car still works. (not sure if it's original but it's the big heavy original style). I just read that the upgraded starter was a simple and great upgrade for the car.
 
73Charger318 said:
Absolutely nothing. As a matter a fact the one on the car still works. (not sure if it's original but it's the big heavy original style). I just read that the upgraded starter was a simple and great upgrade for the car.
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Please see my response here:
what's the favorite replacment starter for these sixes?
I've seen this several times now and made several references to it here, basically gotten ignored. It's all good though. Good luck with whatever you end up doing.
 
Forget the upgrade, put your old starter back in. It could probably stand to be torn down and cleaned up, get the bearings relubricated. A friend gave me two stock gear reduction starters, you can't use them with tti headers. They looked terrible, had been laying on the floor for years. Went through them and I now have a spare, cause the Dakota is coming out of my stock '72 318 Dart, I like the sound of the old starters. In the old days, if someone was starting a Mopar, you didn't even have to look, you knew it was a Chrysler product. Now I have a spare starter for my '69 that has tti headers.
Don't believe that the Dakota is clockable, you would have to buy aftermarket race stuff. They are expensive.
 
CRUZE 418 said:
Forget the upgrade, put your old starter back in. It could probably stand to be torn down and cleaned up, get the bearings relubricated. A friend gave me two stock gear reduction starters, you can't use them with tti headers. They looked terrible, had been laying on the floor for years. Went through them and I now have a spare, cause the Dakota is coming out of my stock '72 318 Dart, I like the sound of the old starters. In the old days, if someone was starting a Mopar, you didn't even have to look, you knew it was a Chrysler product. Now I have a spare starter for my '69 that has tti headers.
Don't believe that the Dakota is clockable, you would have to buy aftermarket race stuff. They are expensive.
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That's probably what's going to happen. I might pick up a AC Delco reman and put it in, and keep the one I pulled out handy in case I need it. I have no header plans with the car. Just received my TTI exhaust so I can get rid of all that rusty skinny pipe on the car. Thanks for the input.
 
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