Hold onto those GMC cores

[homebase1]

Hello All......
Phil, please don't take offence. I have taken your posting or note
or mailing( oh the 90's is such a confusing time) as an example of
what we are NOT doing !
I've taken yours, as I have said, because it is a positive...they took
it (your starter) back.......well, who were they? Let's start nameing
names !! The good, the bad, and the ugly.......if they do business
with one of us , they are doing business with all of us............and
we all should be looking after each other, naming the good guys
and those who are just waiting for us to bend over!
And just so there is no confusion, I am as guilty as everyone
else....but now is my chance to start fresh..
The Onan dealer who quoted me $57 something, for an air filter for
my 6k generator was Cumings Eastern Canada Ltd. in Dartmouth
NS. There, my soul is cleansed !

Just another opinion.

Mike B

 

[philip l. stewart]

Heinz's recent post about having to get a rebuilt alternator at a parts
store reminded me of my experience with a rebuilt starter.

Last year while cranking my 455 with messed-up carburetor, the bendix
gear on the OEM starter (78,000 miles for reference) broke. With other
vehicles in the past I have always had starter motors rebuilt by a local
auto electric shop with good success. In this case, though, I was in a
hurry to leave on a short trip so I checked with one of the national
auto parts stores locally. They said they had "premium" rebuilt starter
with lifetime warranty for the Oldsmobile 455 engine at their
warehouse. The $60 price was OK and with the nextday delivery I had it
quickly installed.

Here's the bad part. Eventhough the starter looked identical in all
respects to the OEM from the outside, it did not spin the engine as fast
as the OEM did. I noticed this on the first crank after installing the
reubilt and while I was cleaning the grease of my hands I had the good
sense to send my wife back to parts store and bought back my old starter
core for $15. Still being in a rush, I put the core on my shelf planning
to have it rebuilt sometime.

I kept putting off the sometime all last winter but the rebuilt starter
always performed well enough to get me going. That was until this
summer's heat. The rebuilt started to not spin any time I shut the hot
engine off and tried to restart within 10 to 15 minutes. Overnight cool
downs were always followed with an easy start. Also, if I remembered to
raise the hoods when stopping hot, the starter would usually work.

I finally had enough of this and took the old OEM core to my local
rebuiler. He warned that all look alike starters are not necessarliy
the same inside and that the GMC motorhome starter may have been more
starter than was used in other applications. Whatever, I now again have
a vigorusly cranking starter which I owe to the fact I recalaimed the
core from the auto parts store before they had shipped it off to be lost
forever. To their credit, however, they gave me a full refund on their
rebuilt unit which I recommended to them be used as a boat anchor
somewhere.

So, keep those OEM cores, boys. You never know when you'll need 'em
again.

Phil Stewart