Continued starter woes

[Kitcat]

As faithful readers may recall, the most persistent problem I have had in my 9 months of Caterham ownership has been my car's failure to start on a random basis. It first happened at the Dragon and has continued intermittently since then.

 

I called RMSC and they said yeah, that's a problem area, best to have it rebuilt.

 

I had the starter/solenoid rebuilt last year-no help.

 

I ordered a replacement starter from Dave Bean Engineering on a recommendation by someone here. After much fussing and fiddling by my mechanic, and a call to Dave Bean, we discovered they only sell stuff that fits on the old cars, my '97 is too new. So the replacement is going back.

 

Thus today's question: is there a replacement starter that fits and works on a '97 Crossflow? If so, where do I get one?

 

A car that doesn't start is really a lot less fun than one that does!

[locostv8]

When I had my alfa there were three starters available for it, Lucas, Marelli, and Bosch. The first was guranteed to fail after a very short time, the second lasted a bit longer, and if you didn't want to have to push most of the time you got the third. I was a poor student in San Francisco so I parked on hills a lot.

[JohnCh]

I ordered a replacement starter from Dave Bean Engineering on a recommendation by someone here.

I'm afraid that might have been me Sorry about that!

 

This is the first I have heard about a change to later crossflow installations. Did they move to a different bellhousing?

 

-John

[Kitcat]

I am told the problem is the spur gear is too big on the Dave Bean supplied device. Dave Bean said my engine was too "modern":):).