Elan starters

[JKING]

Does anyone have any experience with or opinion of the "High Performance Starters" that R D Enterprises is selling for the Elan?

[chicagojeff]

They are awesome. I bought one from RD. I have written in the forum before that they are 10,000 times better than the original, and are even more in keeping with Chapman philosophy, because they are much lighter.

the only trick is whether you use the solenoid on the starter, or bypass it to use the one on the firewall. I did the latter, because I like the push-button remote on the firewall for starting while doing engine work.

good luck. jeff

p.s. one other trick: getting the top bolt attached is hard; you need to use a really long extension on the socket set to reach it from the front. It is not impossible, but takes some fiddling.

[DJThom]

I have had no problem with the original and my engine is a higher compression setup than most S2 at about 10.5:1.

It did need some repairs inside as the internal connection had come apart and required silver solder. Initially, the starter did not have enough power to turn the engine fast enough to start. After the repair, it's been more than adequate.

The added lightness argument can't be denied when looking at a new unit

[JKING]

Thanks guys.
That top bolt is a tough one on the original starter too as you no doubt know, Jeff. It's tough to even see it and in doing it by feel, it's easy to get on the nearby bell housing bolt.
I think I will take a cue from your comment, DJT, and open my starter up and check the input power post connection. I have just finished rebuilding my engine with new sleeves, rings, bearings etc. The starter spins it reasonably well with the plugs removed but really struggles with them in place. I checked the stall torque of the starter and it was consistent with the spec in the manual, i.e. about 7.5 to 8 ft-lb. With a nine tooth starter gear and 110 (I think) tooth ring gear this should produce about 92 to 99 ft-lb on the crank. I measured the torque required to just move the crank with a torque wrench as 19 ft-lb at TDC and 34 ft-lb at TDC + 90 degrees. This was before I ran the engine. After about a five minute run the TDC value reduced to about 10 ft-lb.
After I check that post, if it still struggles with the plugs in I'll try the RDEnt starter.

[1964 S1]

I too bought that starter from rdent and it works great. My +2 had one on it when I bought that car and it convinced me to put one on the S1, Now I'm wondering if I can use a smaller battery.....

[RotoFlexible]

Thanks guys.
That top bolt is a tough one on the original starter too as you no doubt know, Jeff. It's tough to even see it and in doing it by feel, it's easy to get on the nearby bell housing bolt.

My first starter failure occurred within days of bringing the car home from the PO in 1967. I was 16 and hardly knew one end of a ratchet wrench from the other. That first removal took hours. After many years of practice and experimentation, I can do it in minutes. I use the long extension, a U-joint, and the socket. I wrap the U-joint with electrical tape to stiffen it a bit. When replacing the bolt, I wrap a layer of tape around the bolt head and lockwasher so I can place the bolt using the extension, rather than by hand.

Most of my many starter problems have involved the bendix jamming in the ring gear, chewed up ring gears etc. - not the starter itself. I've just fitted the Gustafson starter (sold by rdent and others) but haven't tried it on the road yet. It worked fine on the dyno.

[Frank Howard]

The added lightness argument can't be denied when looking at a new unit

Besides this and the added reliability, there's another advantage that should be considered. When you energize the stock Lucas starter, the spinning motion is turned into inertia that throws the spinning pinion into the stationary ring gear thus causing wear on the teeth. The pre-engaged starter engages the pinion with the ring gear before it starts to spin, so the stationary pinion engages with the stationary ring gear causing much less wear on the teeth.

Believe me, if your dentist owned an Elan, he would upgrade to the pre-engaged starter.

[Chrisrich]

add me to the list of the happy RD Ent/starter upgrade customers.

[chicagojeff]

I'll throw in there that I now use an Odyssey 680 battery, which is about the size of a motorcycle battery. plenty of power for the gear reduction starter. And, as some of you note, the whole thing saves wear since it pre-engages the ring gear. No more Ouch!

[elancoupe]

I have been using one of these starters for 23 years now. I have never had any issues, it's been worth every penny.

[garyeanderson]

1700cc twincam, 20/50 oil, Kieth's starter, and a garden tractor battery, it starts at 30 degrees F. without problems. The electric fuel pump helps filling the webers before it starts cranking. 3 full pumps of the throttle and a 4 of just cracking the throttle open, when it fires, a couple blips on the throttle and as many as nessessary to keep it running and go...
The first battery lasted 7 years, the next was dead in a year and the third is going on 2 years. all three were bought at Napa for $20 a battery. It has started at temps (probably not as reliably) as cold as 20 degrees F. but theres no top, windows, heater, insulation so anything that cold doesn't interest me much.

Gary

[type36lotus]

The RDENT way and I am one of those keep it original type.

[JKING]

Just for the record, I bought the RDEnt starter and it seems to have solved all of my present starter problems. Installation was no worse than for the Lucas starter which isn't really all that bad. It spins the engine just fine and seems to be a lot less traumatic when engaging. Thanks all for the comments.

[Frank Howard]

1700cc twincam, 20/50 oil, Kieth's starter, and a garden tractor battery, it starts at 30 degrees F. without problems.

Gary,

You are ahead of your time. Because Elises and Exiges come with Japanese gear reduction starters, there is a company that is manufacturing a special battery bracket for these cars. This bracket will hold a smaller battery so that owners can save weight and space by swapping out their conventional batteries for garden tractor batteries.

Japanese gear reduction starters are what Lotus would have equipped the Elan with had they been available to bolt straight on to the Ford bell housing at the time. The proof is in the Elise/Exige.