Starter

[Scoobywagon]

I suspect this is a stupid question only because I think I already know the answer. But what the heck.

 

The starter in my 93 Legowagon has gone TU. I do not currently own a spare. However, I have a veritable mountain of EA starters. Anyone happen to know if an EA starter will bolt up?

 

Just thought I'd ask.

[Legacy777]

No I don't think they'll work, but hopefully someone else can confirm or deny that.

[Scoobywagon]

So after a good bit of mucking about, I have the definitive answer. No, an EA type starter will not work on an EJ engine. However, its pretty easy to modify it.

 

In my case, I had a dead EJ starter and a whole pile of EA starters. Motors and connectors are pretty much spot on. They're even indexed the same. The difference lies in the gear reduction housing. The EA series starters have a collar that comes up and shrouds the pinion gear when it is not engaged. You could grind that off, but the pinion does not extend quite far enough to get full bite on the flywheel. It'd probably work, but you wear out the teeth on your flywheel. So...how does this work.

 

First, you have to remove the gear head from the EA starter. This is done by removing 2 screws that are down inside the flywheel end of the starter. I found that this was best accomplished using a #2 phillips head on an impact gun. Next, there are two long, thin bolts that run the length of the motor can. 8mm socket on 1/4" drive ratchet does this just fine. The EJ series starter comes apart exactly the same way except that you have 2 8mm hex head screws that replace the phillips head screws on the EA starter. I found that I could easily remove these with the same 8mm socket and ratchet combo.

 

Next, you need to VERY CAREFULLY remove the gear heads. This is best done with your EA starter in a vice so that it stands vertical. That'll keep all of its internal bits internal. You don't have to be quite so careful with the EJ motor because...well....its dead, jim. Swap the EJ gear head onto the EA motor and reverse the disassembly procedure. Voila. One EAJ starter!