What's the best starter for LS1 swaps
 

She just went click tonight! It did start after a few clicks but need to replace the starter. So what's the best one for LS these days?

I have bought a few things from these guys:Starters, Alternators and more for Cars, Trucks, Tractors and ATVs. Great price, fast shipping, NEW stuff, NO CORE CHARGE.

FREE SHIPPING, too.

Gonna book mark that site for sure! 55 bucks shipped WOW! I ordered starter for a 2008 6.0 and a blanket for it too. THANK YOU Tom!!!

I prefer to buy things like starters and alternatoers from Autozone. They are a standard rebuild, just like everyone else. But they carry a life time warrenty. When I need another one, I just go down to my local AZ and get it. No need to wait for shipping.

LOL thanks Bob! :) I live in tiny town in a county that doesn't have a single 4 lane road or stop light in it. If I see 10 cars on my 34 mile commute to work it's a lot of traffic and that alone is well worth the wait for shipping!
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OK to be fair I do have an O'reillys 25 miles from home and if I get desperate I do get to town on Sundays and could get one. For now I just park on a hill and don't worry about it.

I do this also, but for the prices that DB will sell you a new one, for me, it is worth the wait. I can usually rebuild the old one, since there isn't a core on it, for less than $20, & keep it for a back-up.

I don't know how they did it but I ordered it Thursday morning and it came Friday night. TN is a 3 day ship and that is the return address on the box but it came in one day.

The starter blanket showed up Saturday and of course the car hasn't gave me just a click when starting since they arrived! And I made quite a few trips with it over the weekend... :)
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Should have been a bass player...

I told you they had fast shipping. Maybe you should fabricate a roof rack that could attach to the front latch position on the A-pillar, rest on the roll bar, attach at the rear latch positions & the trailer hitch. LOL!!

I like the way you think tbone!!!

Jim,
Not seen one loaded like yours. I hope you don't carry that stuff often. I would not want to trust it to stay on. Would hate to lose any instruments.

Chuck

I've done it twice now just to see if I could but the first time I only brought half the set so it didn't hang out so much. We played outside at a car show so I couldn't resist but yeah I don't want to take any chances bouncing 2 grand in drums down the street for sure. Now that I did it I doubt I would do it again with the full set like this. Thanks Chuck!

Well the bad news is the 6.0 truck starter is no smaller than the F body starter
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And the really bad news is the bolt pattern is different
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Near as I can tell the C6 vette that I heard is smaller is the same size as both of these. Humph.

Bummer. Are you going to send it back or swap out the nose?

No I decided for 7 bucks in shipping I'd rather swap it out for the right one. I went back over all my numbers and I realized I ordered the wrong truck starter. I ordered one for an 02 and I should have ordered the next gen new 03+ and it would have been smaller and bolted up. I hate when I do stupid....

So I got the 3rd starter in and took her down the a car show and what a surprise it just went click when I wanted to leave. It took about 5 try's and I was getting nervous. I can clearly hear the solenoid fire good and hard it just doesn't turn over. When it does finally turn over it turns fine and pops right off. I can't imagine it would be a 2nd bad starter but that's what it acts like. Any ideas?

With a volt meter, be sure that you are getting 12v. on the "trigger wire" at the solenoid. Also make sure the starter has a good ground.

Will do tbone but fill me in on the thought process. The solenoid is firing with a good clunk at every key turn so doesn't that mean it's doing it's job?

I thought maybe since I am still running the factory battery cable I should look at swapping that but then it finally takes it turns over plenty strong and fast so I figure I'm good with current flow.

It is possible for the solenoid to get enough power to pop but not enough to turn the starter. As shown in the tutorial below.

"Note, however, it may also make “clicking” or “clunking” sound, but be getting less than 12 volts, so it’s important to use a voltmeter to test the power level."

How to Test a Starter Solenoid: 4 Steps - wikiHow

1) Good link, Wolf.
2) Does the LS starter require shims like a small block Chevy? Could be tight & binding?
3) When it fails to start with the key, apply 12v to the solenoid via a remote button & see what it does.

Like this one.Proform 67406 Proform Remote Starter Switch - Free Shipping on All Orders @ JEGS

So I put 45 bucks in a new B+ cable on and added another ground from the battery to the chassis. Then I checked the grounds from the engine to the chassis and bingo the big one turned a half turn on the chassis side.

So I've got 125 bucks into tightening up a loose nut... :o

Sounds like a bad/intermittent connection. I'd go around and check every nut and bolt in the circuit. Including the one behind the wheel!! :)

Mike

LOL exactly! That loose nut causes all the problems!

LOL the saga continues. It started fine heading out to lunch. I went about 3 miles, shut it off for 20 minutes and then I just got a click. It took 6 clicks to start.

When I found the loose ground this morning it was the first one I checked and stopped when I found it was loose. I was already late for work... So tonight I'll take them all loose and clean them good. I'm also going to wire up a volt meter on the starter side of the solenoid so if it just clicks again I can see how much juice the starter is getting. Sheesh!

Well, you did say you missed working on it :-)

LOL yeah but what I miss is working on fun stuff that makes the car more interesting not chasing problems that could leave me stranded!

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Well I guess it's a challenge anyway...

A wing? The only thing I have seen you do is autocross. You don't go fast enough in autocross for a wing to make any difference. If you have been racing that thing, you have been cheating us on videos! But, nice wing.

nah the wing is only there because it came up for 62 bucks shipped on ebay. I had to build stands and end plates for it and paint it but that's the good kind of work! It's a copy of a APR GTC 200 but I have no illusions if it being anything but bling. I put it on the a car show and photo opps but that's about it.
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It's a funny thing because I would see this and think it was rice city if it didn't have the nuts to back it up!
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I've tried everything including adding a 2nd battery with separate cables to the starter and chassis. The car ran for the last 10,000 miles with out ever missing a start and now both the factory GM starter with 60,000 miles on it and the new one do the exact same thing.

Listen to this video and see what you think. The volt meter on the starter side of the solenoid and half way though the video it starts and you can see it jump with power.

So I can't figure out why the solenoid would only let a volt and a half through most of the time but sometimes full power. On both the factory and new solenoids.

That is the EXACT SAME issue as with my stump grinder. Have you inspected the ignition switch? I recall my Miata having an issue like that after it sat during transformation. A shot of W/D 40 in the ignition switch cleaned & lubed the contacts. Presto! No more issues. Hey, maybe I will try this on my grinder.

After sleeping on it I keep coming back to grounds. I don't know how the starter could possibly not be grounded to the block or the block to the chassis but I'm going to take that out of the loop by running a ground cable from the starter to the battery to be sure. What's another 10 feet of welding cable after 125 bucks and 15 hours of messing around anyway....

I agree with tbone. If you have ruled out the starter and the solenoid, I would look at the ignition switch. Did you test the switch side of the solenoid to see if the power level coming to it is low also?

No I didn't but I did jump it with a screw driver and it just clunked too. I figured since the solenoid is firing with a good hard clunk it is getting what it needs and doing what it's suppose to do.

What bugs me is I should be seeing 12v on the starter side of the solenoid even when it just clunks. Even if the ground was not good enough to complete the circuit and turn the starter my meter is grounded to the battery lug so it should see 12V. It has to be that solenoid.

You didn't read the article. The solenoid will clunk with less than the needed voltage to run the starter. The problem may be before the solenoid (the switch). See what voltage it is getting on the switch side of the solenoid before you assume it is getting what it needs.

No I read it and that's what prompted me to add a 2nd battery with separate cables to it to be double dog sure I am getting good B+ and ground directly to the starter. But you are right I have not put the meter on the B+ or the trigger wire while turning the key to prove it.

The switch would make sense to why both starters do the same thing so I'm going to (finally) measure the trigger tonight and see what I have. Easy to do I just figured the screw driver sorted that out but it's really not a good test. Next step a start button!

Thanks Wolf!