Zetec Starters

[Paul Formston]

Hi if you need a starter for your Zetec engined caterham give Chester Sports Cars a ring they do a small neat one for £75 and iv'e had one on mine for 22,000 miles with no problems he gets them made special. Regards Paul

 

Chester Sports Cars 01244 545161

[Big Brother]

Paul,

 

Do these work with the Raceline (same as a Crossflow ring gear type) flywheels?

And are the suitable for high compression engines (where the std starters struggle?)

[Paul Formston]

Hi Se7en-up I have a lightened Zetec Flywheel with a Raceline sump and it works fine, its very small and compact I tried the Xflow starter and it wouldn't fit, Graham has used these starters with highly tuned Zetecs, but give Graham a ring at Chester Sportscars he will give you the full spec Regards Paul

[Zetec Rich]

changed mine to a standad when i replaced my crossflow with the zetec, but its always struggled to turn over, do these starters cure this ?

[Paul Formston]

Hi Zetec Rich I have never had a Problem with the Engine turning over hot or Cold, it spins up a treat, I did here a fuw sevens on the fish and chip run strugling went hot, but mine is great 😬 Regards Paul

[Big Brother]

Rich,

It all boils down to your choice of flywheel.

 

Zetec Flywheel

The (lightened) Zetec flywheel positions the ring gear as it would be on an Escort/Mondeo/Focus.

This means it can use a standard "Zetec" starter.

These are designed to turn over a 2 litre engine and should work fine.

If you have increased the compression ratio (CR), as long as the Zetec starter is healthy, it should be up to the job.

If not, then Pauls solution sounds just the job

 

 

Raceline Flywheel

When the Zetec was becoming a popular conversion, Raceline started to produce a steel lightweight flywheel.

This is lots lighter than a machined 1800 Zetec flywheel.

They also positioned the ring gear as it was on the Crossflow engine. This meant you could reuse your existing Crossflow starter and reduce the cost of the conversion.

The Crossflow starter is designed to turn over a 1.6 engine but manages to start the Zetec OK.

The problem comes if you increase the CR or if your starter gets old and tired.

The symptoms are that the starter struggles to initially turn the engine over. This gets progressively worse over the months untill you cannot start the car at all.

This problem is worse when the engine is hot.

 

There would be an easy fix, as you could just pop in a bigger more powerful starter. The problem is that if you are using a cast (Raceline) sump, there is no room to fit a larger bodied or a geared starter motor.

Additionaly, the Crossflow starters are no longer widely available.

 

A solution up to now has been to have the Crossflow starter refurbished and at the same time, have the motor rewound to work at 9v. This gives it the extra "ooomph" to spin the engine over.

Brise will do this work but its not cheap and probably won't be warrantied as the starter will be classed as "non standard".

 

Raceline are aware of the problem and are currently in the process of having a new geared starter made.

These will be available soon - its currently being designed and tested.

I've seen a few prototypes and they look to be very well put together and more than up to the job of starting a hot, high CR 2 litre Zetec.

 

Steve

 

 

SE7EN-UP!

Life is not measured by how many breaths you take, but by how many moments that take your breath away.

 

 

Edited by - Se7en-Up! on 19 Sep 2006 09:15:51

[Zetec Rich]

Thanks for the info

The i did the zetec conversion back in 95 and i think the flywheel was a lightened one from Dunnell and a new starter was also required. I've had a few battereies so i guess its not them,it always starts, but it never spins up like the tin top.

[Big Brother]

If I ws you, I'd be tempted to give one of Pauls a try.

For £75 its got to be worth a try

[mav]

Graeme offered the club discounts on various items. Suggest you remind him of the offer if you call him.

[Paul Formston]

Thanks Mav I didn't know that Regards Paul