[lamans71]

I am looking at buying a mini starter for my 71 and I'm wondering if anyone has run into difficulties when installing these. I am leaning towards the RobbMC unit and was looking over the install instructions on the website. The one concern I have is that the motor is in the car so I have no way to see if the starter gear is fully engaged with the flywheel. I have searched the threads here and in the street section but did not find much of anything about this type of issue.

Thanks for any info anyone may have.

[rexs73gto]

I run a mini in my car & have no problems at all. The only problem you may have is that you may have to use a shimm or 2 but as far as the fittment of the gear to the flywheel teeth you should have no problem with that at all. they build these starter to fit your engine. Chevy people have the most problem because they have different number of teeth on there flywheels & run into that kind of stuff, but Pontiac engines & people don't have to worry about that. Install it & enjoy it. The only thing you may ahve to get extra is the wire kit to jump the 3rd wire on the stsrter. Some use it & some don't . you won't know until your under the car & see if your car uses all 3 terminals on the starter or just the 2 terminals. If your car has all 3 wire terminals in use you'll have to get the extra wire kit, & in the box with the starter it will give you the part number to order if you need it.

[pggto]

The only thing I would recommend is getting some plastic shim stock so you can measure your gear engagement and shim the starter according to specs. You can cut the shim stock into small pieces to slide between the 2 gears to get you measurements.

[verackashotrods]

I run a mini starter in my 70 firebird with a 455 and headers and they work great and there small enough you can get up in there to work on it.

[RicksGTO]

I run an IMI type mini-starter in my 455 in a Formula and I think it took the same 2 shims that were used on the stock starter. No slow starts ever and a lot of clearance for larger pipes or headers.

[tom s]

The only time I have had issues is with long brach exhaust manifold.Tom

[lamans71]

Thanks everyone for the feedback and info. I was concerned about this because I did find an old thread where a member here was installing one while the engine was out of the car. He posted a pic where the starter pinion gear when fully extended only made contact with 1/2 of the flywheel teeth. I suspected that this was more the exception but just wanted to double check.

Again thanks for the help.