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There was a very small swap meet at the Bangers and Mash races today. I’ve been after a spare red motor starter for the FED, so played greasy starter motor Russian roulette. 1 works, the other not so much.

The working one is stamped u-al/egf 1/12 r13. Any clues what it was originally off?

Identify the starter and you can be in the draw for this magnificent Stromberg BX carb adapter. One set of bolts suits Holley 2-barrel, the other set… not so much. Guaranteed to add more power than pushing it.


Cheers,
Harv

Harv,

EH 179, all HD, probably HR too. Brushes are still easy to get: BSX43. I can try to make the not so much one go . . .

Rob

Many thanks - appreciated

Cheers,
Harv

Pulled apart the solenoid on the one that wasn’t working, cleaned it and now it works.

Ended up with two working red motor starters for $35 each. Happy days.

Cheers,
Harv

Don't red starter motors have different teeth on the pinion gear Harv ? I remember checking once and they are slightly smaller so they don't mesh properly on a grey flywheel.

That adapter looks like a CRS item ..........

Red starters are different, but I suspect they work on a grey. Never tried it myself, but had a local bloke with a humpy who was happily driving one. He was advised to change it back to a grey starter as his mechanic did not like the idea, so I swapped him a grey one for his red motor starter.

That red motor starter sat in the shed for 20 years (it worked then) and is now on the FED. I checked way back, and apparently the tooth count on Roger’s Trimatic-to-grey flexplates suit the red starter (I had that flexplate, but replaced it with a similar one to suit the new 6-bolt crank). Never ran the starter on the FED in anger, but I guess now it has oil in it I probably can.

Talking to Spanners last weekend made me realise I was relying on a starter that had not run in 20 years, so I figured the spare ones were wise.

Cheers,
Harv

Red motor flywheels have a different number of teeth from their grey predecessors, and hence the starter pinion does too. I believe the grey pinion assembly slides straight onto the armature splines of early Bosch red motor starters, but I've not seen it done.

(The EH 149 starter motor is a special case. It's basically a grey starter with two bolt holes in the drive end housing and a red motor pinion.)

Rob

Dug the numbers out. The red motor flexplate/flywheels are 137 tooth, and run a 9-tooth starter. The grey motor flexplate/flywheel is 108 tooth.

Cheers,
Harv

108? I thought 119.

I could be wrong. I pulled the 108 number from one of our esteemed forum colleagues without checking.

Two engines in the house, none with flywheels to check. Tub of flywheels is now under the house behind 2 skip loads of soil the builders dug out today for shed foundations.

Cheers,
Harv

A very knowledgeable bloke on the FE/FC Forum who wrote an opus on Norman Superchargers and their foibles mentions in his ramblings that the grey motor flywheel has 113 teeth - I am curious now so I am going to go home and find one and count the teeth on it ............

Blacky wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 6:09 pm A very knowledgeable bloke on the FE/FC Forum who wrote an opus on Norman Superchargers and their foibles mentions in his ramblings that the grey motor flywheel has 113 teeth - I am curious now so I am going to go home and find one and count the teeth on it ............

That same bloke had a list of early Holden starter motor part numbers, torque outputs, teeth count etc. He can’t find that list, and really needs to be more structured in how he stores stuff

Cheers,
Harv

Thus saith the EK shop manual: "113 flywheel, 9 pinion". Flywheel theoretical pitch diameter: 11.3"
Thus saith the EH shop manual: "137 flywheel, 9 pinion". Flywheel theoretical pitch diameter: 11.417"

Smaller teeth and more of them on the red flywheel, so a slight increase in the pitch diameter of the ring gear. Same number of smaller teeth on the red starter pinion means a decrease in the pitch diameter of the pinion. End result: a decrease of the pinion/flywheel gear ratio.

Rob

I've got a red motor starter on my Grey motor powered HAMBster. It's bolted to a red motor bellhousing and works fine. Teeth are still there at the moment.

Thinking ahead a little, I've started a list of all the bits off the FED that still need chroming. The starter motor is on the list.

Two technical questions.

The commutator end cover and it's little end cap are easy enough to get at, and would chrome up nicely. The end cover though has a bushing in it. Would the bushing press out (and back in again) nicely, or should the whole lot go to the chromer with the request to "not chrome the bush please"?

The main body could be done in paint, but chrome would look decent too. Never had a starter that far apart though. Would the coils come out (and go back in again) nicely, or am I going to disturb 50 years of soldering/shellac/magic smoke that will never be the same again?

Cheers,
Harv