Hey all, the old original starter motor on the car I'm maintaining for an out-of-state buddy--'59 Catalina with the early 389/Hydramatic--finally went yesterday. The car is some distance away and I'll be working on the street there, so I'm hoping to just find a rebuilt starter so I can r&r and be done and save myself some trips/headaches. Anybody got advice/leads on starters for that early combo?
Knew the founder of this shop, though I've not dealt with them personally. https://www.facebook.com/pages/ALSTART-STARTER-ALTERNATOR/249684059079
My '60, the solenoid went in it. We got a replacement at Advance Auto. Worth checking. If it will crank by bypassing the ignition switch with a jumper cable down to the terminal on the starter, that's probably the issue. No fun pulling it off, you have to work around the exhaust pipe to get it out of there. You about need Popeye's forearms.
Looks like '59-'60 Catalina as well as some Chevy/GMC applications. Napa lists a rebuilt for about 60 bucks on their website.
Thanks fellas. Solenoid tests out, separate from the starter. Starter won't crank when jumpered. The bosch unit that napa lists on their website is unavailable at my local store. Story of my life.
I had to buy a newer style starter and replace the nose piece with the one off of my old starter. This enabled me to actually bolt the starter to the bell housing; a necessary thing. It looks to me that most of the motors, solonoids etc are the same with only the nose piece getting changed from year to year.
too bad your not closer as I have a place here in Chicago that can r&R it in 2 days , Napa should be able to have on sent to the store from the main warehouse ( should take a week) . if not look in the yellow pages , you should have several places as many older cars you guys have out there plus the industrial equipment .
Thanks again boys. I managed to get somebody on the phone at NAPA who knew what they were doing and located the starter I needed.
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