Assembling my 428, I ran into an unforseen problem. The stock starter had an interference with the cast 427 exhaust headers that I obtained for it. I dont know why it happened, but the terminal lug on the starter would jam itself into the side of the header, causing a direct electrical short. I tried shaving the lug down, but to no avail. So, I went looking for a solution which would be an aftermarket mini starter. I narrowed it down to two selections, both had gear reduction which enhanced torque output packaged in a small casing which would solve the fit problem. The two choices were a CVR 5049M and a Powermaster 9506. I read reviews and priced both. Based on quotes, I decided on the Powermaster 9506. The starter has an aluminum case, is much smaller than the stock starter. It does not have the gear shroud that the original does, and is much lighter in weight than stock starter, making it easier to install which is nice when you are contorting yourself underneath trying to fit it between the block and headers.
This starter is a bit different electrically than the stock. It includes a solenoid in the starter assembly itself. The starter has two terminal lugs on it, one for the solenoid and one for the starter motor power. The instructions from Powermaster are pretty lame when documenting how to electrically install this starter, which can be done two ways; you can retain the use of your fender mounted solenoid or you can bypass it and use the solenoid on the starter only. If you retain the fender mounted solenoid, the system will actually run through two solenoids, which is ok and how I installed it so that the stock look remains. Doing it this way means you need to short together the two terminal lugs on the starter with a 12 gauge, ring terminated wire or a different effective shunt, which is not supplied with the starter. I used a piece of terminal stock (helps to work for a wire harness supplier), then attach the original heavy gauge wire from the fender solenoid to the shorted pair of terminals on the starter.
On my particular block, the starter did not bolt up in place flush mounted. There was some interferce between the block and the starter housing. I had to grind some material off of the block ear that surrounds the starter mount along with a small amount off of the starter itself to get it to fit. I had read that a manual transmission block is different than a C6 block, which doesnt make sense to me but in any case i Had a block that interfered. The grinding was not a huge amount, just a deburring if you will. Fortunately could fit a die grinder up in position with it mounted in the car.
Firing up the engine for the first time, the starter worked like a champ. It shows no sign of straining. I dont yet have the experience with starting it after heat soak, but I hear from others that it does not have any issues with that, either.
The starter appears to be a good choice functionally. Was a bit of a pain with the fitment, and the confusion with the electrical instructions. The starter cost $180 from an ePay store. Summit had the starter listed for $200.
Tom
After discovering that the stock starter had an interference problem when changing to
