084 direct drive starter setup

**Doozit20** · 05-01-2014, 09:15 AM

Ok so im building my dad a boat using a 084 direct drive and I wanted to think of a way to use a starter rather then have him rope start it. I wanted to put a starter in the same direction as the stock 24 volt starter was but use a 12 volt starter instead. After some research I found that a chevy starter rotates in the correct rotation and also that a chevy flexplate is roughly the same diameter as the stock flywheel but was a few pounds lighter. A quick search on eBay and I came up with a high torque mini chevy starter that weighs in at roughly half of what the stock 24v starter did at about 7 lbs.

**Doozit20** · 05-01-2014, 09:36 AM

The plan was to mount the flexplate on the back of the hub using the holes in the flexplate. After getting a hub from arrow prop we were able to do a dry fit of the hub flexplate and starter...well almost. The first thing we had to do was to make a desision of either using the holes in the flexplate as they were real close to fitting but after or to drill another bolt pattern as to match up with the rotax pattern of the hub. We decided to do the later using a rotary table on a Bridgeport milling machine. We also had to bore out the center so that it would fit tightly over the back of the hub. After getting these done we then did a dry fit with an arrow prop prop. And found that the starter we had would hit the prop with the cone of the starter. I should say that there is a different starter that doesnt use the front cone that might work as well though it is a little heavier then this one and uses different mounting to the block. So anyways to fix the prop/starter hitting problem we had to make a 1" spacer to go in between the back of the hub and front of the flexplate.

**Doozit20** · 05-01-2014, 09:45 AM

After getting that squared away we had to figure out a way to make up a rear mount and a mount for the starter. What I ended up doing is fab up a bracket using large angle cut to fit around the block and bolted up to the back bottom to bolts on the engine. If a better pic is need ill take a better one next time I take it off the engine for painting.

**Doozit20** · 05-01-2014, 10:01 AM

Another thing I found when getting the final fit was that I had to cut some of the cone away so the flexplate wouldn't hit. Here is a video of what it looks like all together and spinning over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=BTDcQDUt9I8

**krwsr** · 07-26-2014, 05:04 PM

How is this starter setup working out for you?
Kenneth

**Doozit20** · 07-26-2014, 05:44 PM

This starter setup works like a champ. I havent has a single problem with it. It spins the motor plenty fast enough and cranks it right up.

**Papee** · 08-12-2014, 04:53 PM

I'm still trying to get the right parts together for the setup on the other end. How many teeth does that starter have? The ccw starter I am using has 9 teeth which means I need a 122 tooth flywheel. I'm having trouble finding a flywheel that doesn't break the bank.

**Doozit20** · 08-12-2014, 09:30 PM

Im assuming you are mounting your starter onto the front of the rope start pulley? Will a flex plate work, they arent usually that expensive? And with a gear with 122 teeth will that be big enough for the starter to clear the engine. I believe the starter im using has 11 teeth and the flexplate has 168 teeth. I just mounted a starter on my boat finally. I used a harley davidson starter with 10 teeth and a ring gear I modified off a rotax seadoo engine and I think it has 88 teeth but may be a little more or less. That ring gear just barely clears the rope pulley diameter and I have the starter mounted forward of the engine facing backwards for thecorrecr rotation. Cranks it right up

**Doozit20** · 08-12-2014, 09:32 PM

http://m.ebay.com/itm/390904226964?nav=SEARCH

would this work??

**Papee** · 08-12-2014, 10:27 PM

It's so confusing but from what I'm gathering a 9 tooth starter takes a 10/12 pitch flywheel. These are harder to find and the teeth are cut different than a starter like you have which takes a 12/14 pitch. These are like the more common Chevy starters.

So now I'm back to trying to find a ccw starter that I can change the gear on to an 11 tooth which would allow me to use the more common flywheel. I am putting this on the rope pulley. There are options out there like marine starters but I am trying to find a setup that is affordable. If this all works out the parts will be right around $100.

What you posted is just the ring gear I believe but it is too many teeth and cut wrong. I can get just the ring gear but I'm try to stay away from all the machine work to make it simple for everyone.

Edit: just to be clear, what I'm shooting for really is a Chevy 14" flywheel and finding a ccw starter that I can change the nose gear to a 11 tooth. If I can't do this I am going to go with a cheap Chevy starter and flywheel and take the starter to a shop and have the rotation reversed.

**Doozit20** · 08-12-2014, 10:35 PM

Yeah I didnt get into all that pitch stuff with the starters. I just got a chevy starter and a chevy flexplate lol. Honestly besides whatever the machine work that would need to be done the ring gear and starter were under 100. I think it was around 25-30 for the flexplate and 55 or so for the starter. It was a little tricky to get the mount made for the back though. I think saltytexan used an outboard starter and a chevy flexplate. But im not sure about the gear that he used.

**Papee** · 08-12-2014, 10:40 PM

Yea using the more expensive stuff is ok if you're only doing it once but trying to make this affordable is the challenge. If I have to go with the Chevy setup and have it reversed it still won't be bad at $125 for the modification but I'm still try to come up with the budget system.

**Doozit20** · 08-13-2014, 11:46 AM

I gotcha so ur looking to sell a kit so to speak that people can bolt up to almost any engine? A thought that pops amd me were throwing around was to use the starter parts we used but rather then bolt the starter where we did we were going to make new intake tubes that would move the carb up and forward but keep the same length tunea so it doesnt mess with the torque of the engine. Then we were going to mount the starter on top of the engine. This was all just at the stareing and thinking stage and didn't go any further then that. And that wouldn't be cost efficient at all for reselling it unless you made up a sort of kit using the carb setup with new tubes and the starter setup all in a bundle package but I can't see that being a cheap setup. Prob something like 200-250 but still would be too bad. Again just thinking out loud. Lol