How To Install A High-Performance Starter

With the car on a hoist, the stock starter is easily taken off by unbolting it from the bellhousing. First remove the battery cable from the starter, then the two bolts that hold it in place. This can be done in less than five minutes.

Make sure the starter mounting flange is clean and smooth, and then put the MSD starter in place of the stock unit. This first installation was sort of a test fit because a few adjustments were needed.

Install and torque the supplied hardware to about 18 lb-ft. Make sure the position of the solenoid is away from direct heat sources. If there are clearance problems, such as the solenoid is too close to the headers, which was the case with our car, the starter housing can be rotated to move the location of the solenoid. While in place for the test fit, also check the clearance between the ring gear on the flywheel or flexplate and the edge of the pinion gear. There should be at least a 1/16-inch clearance. If not, the supplied shims will need to be installed. We needed to do this, per the following steps.

After removing the starter, we marked the location of the starter mounting block in relation to the starter housing for reference. This helped us install the shims and reclock the starter housing to move the solenoid away from the headers.

Remove the three Allen-head bolts from the starter to install the shims and reclock (or reposition) the motor. Two of the bolts are on the outside and the third one is inside the billet mounting block.

With the bolts removed, the mounting block is separated from the housing.

Place the small shim ring in the bearing bore in the mounting block as shown here.

The large outer shim goes between the block and starter-motor housing as shown.

The billet mount is then reinstalled on the housing.

The mounting block can be placed on the housing in four different positions. On the left is the way it was set when we took it out of the box. On the right is the furthest setting, which is where we moved it to get the solenoid away from the header. It also perfectly positioned the solenoid to easily attach the battery cable.

After installing the shims and adjusting the mounting block, we reinstalled the starter for the final time and securely tightened the supplied hardware.

It's also a good idea to check gear mesh. Do this by gently prying the pinion gear out to engage the ring gear. Sometimes the pinion will not retract, which is normal. It will go back in once the starter is used for the first time. A good measuring device is a standard paper clip, which should fit between the ring-and-pinion-gear teeth. We took a quick look and could easily see that the mesh was good.