1988 Starter Replacement

[Socalsteve2021]

I wanted to give back to the community on replacing the huge, heavy, unreliable GM factory starter on OBS trucks with the smaller, lighter gear reduction starters for the LS motors. There's a bunch of discussion here so this is just to confirm upgrading to a 1998 Vortec starter is a direct bolt-on replacement. The Delco Style Permanent Magnet Gear Reduction Mini Starter bolts right up to the block, same wires, etc. It starts the truck much better! Now people think I have an LS in the OBS K1500 . I ordered a starter for a 1998 Silverado from our local auto parts store.

Caveat: You need to pickup these bolts (PN 12338064) which are slightly shorter than the old ones

Definitely worth the extra $$ for a much better starter.

 

[someotherguy]

Welcome to posting Steve, we see it took you a few years since joining up we've been swapping to pmgr mini starters for a while now. BTW factory started equipping some models of gmt400 trucks with these starters beginning around 1994. At any rate yes they are an excellent upgrade from the big direct drive starter and yes, the correct bolts are absolutely necessary.

Richard

 

[1990Z71Swede]

Soo which is it? Either you have a Vortec starter or an LS starter. I'm pretty sure you mean Vortec, then that bolt P/N makes sense. Maybe they are the same? IDK.

 

[Schurkey]

1. There's MULTIPLE "OEM" designs of PMGR starters on GM vehicles, that happen to fit the older V-8 engines. My choice is the PG260 as shown in the attached brochure, but there's others.

2. V-8s with the small flywheel will need one of those long bolts, and one short one. Part number for the short one is in the attached brochure.

3. Don't forget to rig-up something for the solenoid heat shield that came with the bigass direct-drive starter. I re-drilled mine, and made it work.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

IGNORE the white wire on the solenoid of the mini-starter. I tried running a "Ford Solenoid" on the fender with the mini-starter the way I did with the old, direct-drive unit. THAT DOES NOT WORK WITH PGMR STARTERS. Takes forever for the starter to disengage from the flywheel when the white wire is installed--the starter self-energizes, which leads to grinding the starter drive teeth against the ring-gear teeth. Bad noises, excess wear, very irritating.