I have a 78 Ford F150 with a 300 in it. It is a 4WD. I am not sure what year 300 it is.......pretty sure it is not the original motor. The starter is starting to drag and not engage at times. Curious as to which mini starter I can use. It has the 435 4 speed in it. Reading on here I gather there is a difference between the auto and stick starters. I have also seen they are wired a little differently due to the solenoid being on the starter. Does anyone know which starter or what I need to look for. It has a header on it and want the next time I have to change it to be a little easier............Thank you.
Which mini starter for an old 300.
- Thread starter jrotten67
- Start date
Look for a starter for a 96 F150 with a 4.9L 6cly as an example. Manual starter if yours is manual, automatic if yours is automatic.
You WILL need to change the wiring slightly from stock, but it isn't that hard to do and the stock fender solenoid and stock starter cable can be reused.
You WILL need to change the wiring slightly from stock, but it isn't that hard to do and the stock fender solenoid and stock starter cable can be reused.
Also, the mini starters from small block (302,351) V8s will work. Auto / auto or std / std as mentioned above.
I just installed a powermaster 9604 in my 85 300 with a np435. The starter can be clocked meaning it can spin 360* to clear headers. The power from the key wasn't enough to trigger the built in solenoid so I had to use the fender mounted one. You likely won't not need the spacer ring that comes with it. The starter is strong and I can tell it will work a lot better than a normal one during hot starts. A bit expensive but recommended.
arse_sidewards
Famous Member
guhfluh":3lnuw353 said:
Instead of triggering the starter your fender solenoid triggers the solenoid on the starter and you run a big fat wire straight from the top bolt on the starter solenoid to the hot on the battery. Pretty damn simple.
F-250 Restorer
Famous Member
I use an efi starter on my 75 300. With both a c6 and a ZF5 behind the same motor, I had to space the starter from the mount with two washers between the block and the starter on each mount bolt.
Unless you have headers, I would stick with the old style. Rebuilds for the old style are half the price.
With the Hedman header I was able to use C clamps to torque the header out of the way to remove the old style starter. It lasted 10 years with the header beside it.
Unless you have headers, I would stick with the old style. Rebuilds for the old style are half the price.
With the Hedman header I was able to use C clamps to torque the header out of the way to remove the old style starter. It lasted 10 years with the header beside it.
Shouldn't need to space anything with the correct starter. My current PMGR "EFI" starter was ~$100 from Autozone and worth every bit of it to me for how easily and fast it turns over now. My old starter didn't last but a few days before it quit when heat soaked when I had headers. I don't have headers now, so not certain the PMGR starters can be changed with them, but they're smaller for sure.
arse_sidewards
Famous Member
guhfluh":gfbvgq5i said:
If you can change the old style without removing the headers you can change the PMGR. The body is substantially smaller. If the solenoid gets in the way it takes a torx bit (forget the size right now) to remove it.
Actually, if it were me I'd just skip removing the electrical connections and let the solenoid dangle there while I swapped out just the motor itself then stick the old solenoid back on.