ok last saturday my starter died in my 82 GS, so i ordered one from victoria british.

the starter came in today and its different (bigger, with a cover over the gear, chevy style), which makes me wonder if my engine is actually a later model.

My 12a has the beehive oil cooler which makes me think it's from an 84 or 85.

if i am correct, will the 79-83 starter work?
it is the same engine, with different cooler right?

does anybody know?

 

The behive cooler was used from '81 to '85 if I remember correctly. The only 1st gens with the fmoc were the '79, '80, and the GSL-SEs. Correct me if I'm wrong. Therefore a behive cooler does not mean it is a later model engine. Sorry I cannot help you on the starter compatability. Good luck.

 

My 1981 GS has the stock under-the-radiator oil cooler. It never had a beehive-style.

 

the last 2 82's i have parted had the front mount cooler. beehive was 83-85 12a i think, could be wrong though. also the starter in 81-83 has more/less teeth but i think they are compatable. if your interested in a front mount cooler i have one for sale with the lines, mounts and oil filter pedestal for $150. on your 82 it should mount right up. your engine will thank you.

 

I replaced 3 (yes, 3, count 'em, 3) starters last week on my 3 7s: 83GS, 85GSL and 85SE, and they are all the same. That's 2 12As and a 13B. All the same. And all the order guides I looked at showed them all the same. Are you sure they sent you the right starter?

The 3 I put in were from 3 different sources: a JY starter that was my spare, a Bosch rebuild from our best local guy, and an ACDelco rebuild from Rockauto.com. They all went in easily and work perfectly.

The only variant I know of is that the manual trans starter has 11 teeth and the auto trans has 14 teeth. Maybe you should count the teeth on the pinion.

B

 

just checked the garage. 79-82 8 tooth, 83-85 11 tooth. spacing is the same on the gears so it will work fine.

 

Wonder why the change was made.

The newer one should provide a little more speed on cranking and reduce flooding.

HOWEVER.

The older one should provide more torque and require less power to crank.

 

It doesn't matter how many teeth it has....The SIZE doesn't match up. I can't help ya out, but i think people are confused as to what you're trying to say. But, dude, all of them have that cover...Maybe you should just mess with it, it should go in rather easily.



Mike

 

I tried mounting it up, and found that the rear suport will not fit on the new starter, the studs are further apart than the original.

I double checked the part number, and according to the catalog, i ordered the right starter, i'm guessing the box got mislabeled, or the wrong starter got put in the box.

kinda like when you buy shoes, and there are two left ones in the box.

this is really agravating

oh, i forgot to mention it's got an auto tranny.

 

im looking at rockauto.com and it seems to me that the manual trans have the 8 (79-83) or 11 (84-85) tooth setup and autos regardless of the year have the 14 (79-85) tooth setup

 

the starters for the auto trannys are different, you must have gotten a non-auto starter by accident.

 

I think the manual tranny starters have that shroud like thing around the engaging sprocket.

I have an auto tranny as well, it does not have that aluminum, or whatever material it is, case around the sprocket.