What is the difference between a PRE March 1990 Starter and a POST March 1990 starter?

 

I have starter part number 17170 which appears to be universal clear up until a 2004 Baja including Legacy, Loyale, etc... BUT Ive heard the car Ive got is a very early 1990 Legacy because the bumpers are black as opposed to body color...?

 

So if it is universal, the starter from a 1996 Outback should fit it right

Don't know that I can answer your question, but when I had a 91 Leggie, it developed a bad starter. I bought a rebuilt replacement at a parts store. The new one looked slightly different from the old, and then I realized the starters were two different brands. One was a Mitsubishi, the other I think a Toshiba, or Hitachi. It didn't make any difference, the replacement unit worked just fine. So, those two units were interchangeable.

Manual transmissions often have a smaller starter "hole" and require a different c-face dimensioned starter to bolt up. Manual starters will fit automatic's but not the other way around. This is the case through the mid-90's but it may not have stayed that way into the 2000's.

 

GD

Did a 97 2.2 swap auto to 98 2.5 DOHC auto and the starters are different.

 

O.

everything that i have found and seen and done, any manual starter will fit any manual car and any auto starter will fit any auto trans. at least in the older to almost now stuff.

 

and there are two different styles also that i have seen, a gear reduction and a non gear reduction. also the gear reduction will fit in the non gear reduction and vise versa.

Grabbed one off a first gen (today was half off day at PNP)

 

Theres a guard type thing OVER the gear that mine didnt have, Im 99 percent sure it wont fit, but I got a receipt and I dropped the starter out right as he said "We close in 5 mins please exit" type thing... so when I saw it was different I said oh well.... Ill return it later... but still, this is confusing, why the change?

I really have no idea why they did different type of starters. I would think maybe the gear reduction on a higher compression motor, but there were non gear reduction starter on the same motors.

 

Get on autozone.com and look up pictures of a starter for 2000 legacy outback with a 2.5 and an impreza with a 2.5. Both should be the same motor, but the outbacks got the gear reduction where the impreza didn't.

 

But that being said both starters are interchangeable with each other yet look nothing alike.

 

I have ran geared starters in old legacys and non geared starters in new motors and trannys. And in my honest opinion I like the non gear reduction starters better. Not unless you were building some monster compression 2.5 or doing a manual swap on a svx, the non geared starts spin the motor over just fine and quicker then the geared one.

So this is the starter that came out of my 1990 Legacy:

Notice the gear is completely exposed.

 

Here is the starter that I got from a 1992 Legacy in the junkyard:

Notice the gear is covered by metal...

 

 

I guess I can put it in and see if it'll work. But seems itd be different...

 

Anyone dealt with a FWD vs AWD Legacy? Maybe the flywheel is different and therefore the gear is different?

I'm still going to say its going to work. Even with the slight case differences. Let's just call it a redesign of the case for what ever reason, kind of like a supermodel wanting a little less nose, but still the same gal.

 

Also the 2wd legacys share all the same clutch and flywheel bits with an awd.

 

I'm just saying I have had so many combos of motor, tranny, flywheel and starter combos through out the years with out a single issue, if it came out of a legacy it will go in legacy just fine.