You are correct.

Original starters have been rebuilt to death. It is a crap shoot if you can buy a good rebuilt starter. I rebuilt the last starter I installed. You can still obtain some of the parts needed to rebuild a starter. You must have a good housing , armature, field coils and nose piece. I obtained a new end plate and armature from e-bay. The bronze bushings for the nose piece and end plate are still available. The rest of the parts are common to all GM starters and new replacements are still available at parts stores. I rebuilt a 1963 Pontiac starter and found that a new starter drive (Long) for a bell-housing mounted starter is not available from the dealer or from any local parts stores. Fortunately, I had new one in my obsolete parts collection. However, a 1964-up Pontiac and Chevrolet starter drive (short) is still available at most local parts stores. This is only if you want to want to keep original style parts. Otherwise, the aftermarket like the starter you used are the best option.

 

I cant understand why anyone would ever run one of those old Delco monsters again with all the much better alternatives.
I got a rebuilt starter for a Mustang one time, put it on and it worked 2-3 times, took it back off and just for fun took the rear plate off, it was full of dirt and had never been apart, just cleaned and painted. Last rebuilt for me ever. Same with clutches, even if the rebuilts were free, not cheap enough to do the job twice.

 

I was told years ago that a remanufactured anything is just cleaned and then they only replace the parts that are defective. Then spray a little paint on it to make it look new.

 

A new AC Delco starter is no longer available so you must rebuild your old one or use a aftermarket starter.

If you are doing a stock race or show car restoration, the show car judges usually knock points off for aftermarket equipment unless it is camouflaged well.

For example, NMCA (National Muscle Car Association) requires a Rebuilt original or original transmission in the King Street Classes. The old 1959-1963 Borg Warner T10 4-speeds are notoriously weak transmissions. The original T10 in my '63 Pontiac Catalina 421 HO was split in half and came out after installing my rebuilt engine. I replaced it with a new Borg Warner Super T10 (AS9) but I knew it would not pass tech inspection if I left the cast iron side cover on it. I installed the old 1963 aluminum side cover on the Super T10 and it visually passed pre-race inspection by the track techs.

I engine was the original '63 421 block but with 455 Pistons and crank shaft. Passed tech inspection truly with ease.

 

I had the same issues 17 years ago. I went to my summit catalog and bought a powermaster brand mini gear reduction starter for $200 back then and after thousands of starts as of last week its still working strong and fires right up. My other build has a summit boxed one that was about $125 so not overkill like the powermaster brand and not as tough but way more then enough for my build and its going on 9 years and not a problem.

 

a diy starer rebuild incluses brushes, a bendix (if it was bad), a solenoid and a single bushing
easy peasy

that said i bought a powermaster mini starter when i rebuilt my 58 truk

 

You will find, if you look, that most "reman" starters do not have new brushes or bushings. The armatures on most starters can only be turned once or the bars are too thin to take the heat. Some of the starters from the 70s and early 80s used aluminum field windings and suffer from heat build up and excessive resistance. The same starters that use the aluminum fields used very hard brushes and no undercut commutators. The brushes had to be harder to wear the commutator down to make good contact with the bars.
For the most part you need to find a parts source for armatures, bushings, and the correct brushes for your starter. In order to get good results you need a growler, a lathe, bushing reamers and a field coil press to do the job right. I rebuild my own and there are places to get the right parts as long as you have the manufacturers part number for the starter. It is usually cheaper to go to an aftermarket starter if you don't need an exact replacement.

 

Technology

Basically it is technology. Look at the stock LS starter. Tiny. Just better tolerances. I bought the Proform which I guess uses Bosch motors. Just the manufacturing of the parts you can see the better design engineering. Just took about 10lbs off the car too!

 

My experience with reman starters is that a high percentage are bad from the start and those that do work fail much more quickly than new. I used to be able to swap out a starter one handed in the dark on my back with my eyes closed in a few minutes. Since I went to decent gear reduction starters I haven't replaced a starter in years.

Often cheaper isn't better or cheaper.

 

Fifteen or Twenty years ago you could get excellent rebuilt (reman) starters because the cores were good to start with. Now the cores have been rebuilt to death and it is a crap shoot if you get a good one.

Example:

Fifteen years ago I purchased a rebuilt Holley Rebuilt Carter AFB for a 1966 Pontiac at Chief Auto Parts for the astonishing price of $25, no core needed. I called the headquarters of Chief Auto Parts retail section in Dallas TX to inquire why the Carter AFB was so cheap. They told me that good rebuildable Carter AFB cores are becoming difficult to obtain so Chief Auto Parts was "dumping" what they had on the market and was not going to offer them any longer. I immediately purchased five more rebuilt Carter AFB carburetors for $25 each which was all of those Chief Auto Parts had left in their warehouse. I resold them for $70 each.

 

I like the small AC Delco permanent magnet starters from mid 1990s 5.7 liter engines. Not too expensive if you get one rebuilt by AC Delco.

Glad the Bosch worked out for you. Those full size starters are a bit*ch with headers.