I haven't personal experience, but I read a comment in a UK mag (car was a Jag) to the effect:
"Works great, but makes a god-awful noise".
Choose with care...
I highly recommend this. I got mine from Andy Kress at Performatek - Home and installed on my '76 Spider. Much faster cranking, less current draw, lighter weight, and sounds just like my '91 Spider that came with a gear drive starter from the factory. Also, much easier to install - especially that you don't need the supplemental front brace that attaches to the engine mount (this may be for the high torque starters used in the later cars. Added to keep the torque from breaking the bell housing but a pain to install).
I'm a daily driver Spider 2 liter, I converted to the BOSCH gear reduction starter four years ago, the second replacement in the last four years came from BOSCH with a fullsize starter and a sticker proclaiming it to be a suitable replacement.
It seems to me the gear reduction starter doesn't last as long as the fullsize, waste of money unless weight critical for racing.
I have had a Bosch gear reduction starter on my 79 Spider for more than 10 years and it has been trouble free. I would not consider going back to the old type which requires a support bracket to avoid cracking the bellhousing.
It's great and I have had no problems with it even starting with high octane 98 RON fuel on a cold morning. It starts pretty much first time every time. Although on cold mornings a good choke helps.
Nobody is mentioning the number of teeth in the flywheel. I converted to a late spider starter years ago on my 74 GTV and at the time the knowledge was that the number of the teeth in the flywheel was very important. I can no longer remember the details but my starter came from an 86 spider and I also changed flywheels to one of the same era. The flywheels come in 130 and 131 and I don't remember which one is from which era. I do remember that the number changed in the late 70s or early 80s and then changed back in the 90s.
Now for the aftermarket ones, do they work on any flywheel? The Classic Alfa one seems to work on any year. Could the horrible noise that is being reported have to do with that? What would happen if they are not matched? Or maybe that was a false recommendation?
The 130 and 131 tooth starters have very slight mounting differences , they mount up fine but are not interchangeable, ie the 131 starter will mount up to the 130 ring gear but it sits a mm or so further out so it will take the teeth off your ring gear , so yes it does matter !
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