I have a Tilton Super starter on my buick 455. I have a few questions if any of you out there know the answers please let me know. Thanx!!! 1) How do you measure the space between the impeller on the starter and the flywheel? 2) Is there anything that I should know about the starter before firing the engine over for the first time? 3) Anyone ever had a problem with these? Thanx, ROb:3gears:
Yes,I have one on mine. Not sure of what you are asking, shim the starter as you would a stock one, you'll have to hold out the drive gear with a screwdriver so you can get some backlash between it and the flywheel. Note, make sure you have a little clearence (about .020) remember more is better than none however you need to be right and this means you need to rotate flywheel and check it many places around. These things have a lot of torque, so when you first hit the key it needs to be right to avoid tearing up the flywheel. You can use a paperclip as a guide, I just eyeball it with a flashlight to see good. Never had a problem with mine in 5 years. They should have had pretty good info boxed with them if it was new.
The only problem I had was a major pain to fix. I have a TA flywheel on my car (4spd of course) and it had too narrow a ring gear on it. This caused the starter not to engage enough. I talked to TA and found out they had a wider ring gear available. Of course I had to take the whole thing apart, but once back together, no problems at all. Marc
I had a clearance issue when using the Tilton with a JW Wheel. Powermaster had the necessary clearance. Bruce
I am using the same setup as Marc I believe. I have a TA performance flywheel ( 4 speed ) and I have never installed a starter before. Basically what I was wanting to know is what to check. I also had to mount mine upside down (solenoid facing the ground)to get it to line up with the block. I called Tilton and they said that it's normal to have to do that unless you want to take it apart. It doesn't pose any clearance problems, it just looks stupid. I got some spacers and shims in the box with the starter, but wasn't sure how to tell if I need to use them. I appreciate all your input. Thanks, Robert
One of the reasons the Tilton is used is because the solenoid can be mounted with the most clearance. The correct way is with the solenoid down, the way they come, this gives all kinds of room around headers as well as keeps it cooler.
tilton starter mounting I ran into the same issue of mounting the starter upside down due to lack of solenoid to header clearance. Maybe I am obtuse but the starter drive gear was a good 1/8" below the ring gear. Inspection of the block mount plate and corresponding armature case holes disclosed no way to spin the motor around without.. drilling and tapping new holes in the appropriate location! That was a pain in the a$$. I have bought a use starter on this board and a new one from Ebay and both were the same. Did I overlook something... Thanks, George
