Builders,
Learn something most people do not know: Anodizing, the surface finish seen as the Gold color on our parts, is a very effective electrical insulator. You can put a multi-meter on it and test this if you doubt it. It is really magic to me how something as conductive as aluminum, can be fully electrically isolated my a microscopically thin chemical conversion layer, but it is.
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All it takes it bolting the part down, and generally the fasteners, particularly lock washers and pipe threads will cut through the outer layer and make the part conductive. However, on our 2400-L Starters, we have been extensively anodizing the brackets, and on some of them powder coating the main plate and the nose. This has lead to some of them having difficulty getting a solid ground path, even though they are bolted directly to the motor.
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The solution is this little grounding link made from #4 wire and two copper fittings. It connects the 3/8″ starter stud directly to one of the bolts mounting the 5th bearing housing to the engine case. The standard oil cap shows how small the part is.
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Above, the link installed on a 3.0 liter Corvair. This bypasses all the anodized brackets. and lets the current flow into the case, and back to the Engine Ground Cable at the rear of the engine. Why this is important: Although the starter is tiny, it is very powerful, and it can use more than 300 amps at full load (the Corvair doesn’t typically demand this of the starter) If the motor does not find a solid ground by the time it engages, it will actually try to ground through the crankshaft, making impressive sparking where the flywheel teeth meet the starter. Heavy metal pyrotechnics aside, it is terrible for the engines bearings to do this even for a moment. The perfect small solution is the little grounding link. We are including them with all of our 2400-L starter kits now, but if you have a 2400-L series starter, we encourage you to install one.
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-wewjr.
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