6.2 Starter Brace

[campfire]

I have read that 6.2 starters should be braced to prevent cracking of the block around the starter bolt holes. What merit (if any) is there in bracing the starter? And I've been told to brace the starter to the frame, but I don't understand why I would want to attach the starter to the frame when the engine can rock back and forth in its mounts. It seems that bracing to the frame would turn the starter into one giant pivoting engine mount.

So...teach me about starter bracing.

 

[Massboy]

The starter should be braced at the rear to the side of the engine block. There is a threaded hole cast into the block that the brace bolts into and then to the end of the threaded rod at the rear top of the starter.

It is important because without the brace the starters tend to loosen up. Often when they do loosen the aluminum starter housings crack or wear enough to keep getting looser. Once loose enough then the starter bolts can break or worse, the block corner can break if one bolt finally comes out.

The problem is the braces are getting hard to find. The standard type starter uses a curved brace and the gear reduction type starters use a shorter angle iron looking brace that is actually easy to make. The curved one on the other hand is not as easy to make. If you have the braces or can get them, use them on the 6.2 as the normal idle vibrations is enough to loosen the starter without the brace.

 

[kennyw]

If you don't use a starter brace on a 6.2L it is just a matter of time before you either break a starter bolt or crack the starter bolt ears off of the block.

 

[campfire]

Ah. I had figured the block had to be the place to attach, but I'd never noticed a hole for it. I'll have to go look for that.

Anybody have pictures of what either setup looks like? I think I'm missing all 3 of mine (not totally sure as I've only had to replace the starter on Blue). Time to add starter braces to my list (3 times over).

 

[campfire]

This thread just took a personal turn...

I visited my folks this weekend and found that their '93 6.5TD wasn't cranking. I crawl underneath and find this:





The truck had no starter brace, and the starter bolts had snapped, dumping the starter onto the NV4500 slave cylinder.





So the brace issue moved up from a "fix soon" issue to a "fix NOW" issue.

 

[campfire]

After a trip to the local Chevy dealership, and 1/2 hr of digging the bolts out of the block (thankfully they came fairly easily), I had this:



Not knowing what the brace was to look like, we bought one new gear-reduction starter brace from the dealership. I'm not sure how they feel comfortable charging 20-something dollars for their small bracket, but it gave me a good pattern for fabbing several more out of an old bedframe:







This should provide enough for the broken truck + my fleet with an extra. Now to get them installed.

I crawled under the blazer and I found that it did have its brace installed (I hadn't noticed it before).

For future reference, this is what a (bent) direct-drive starter brace looks like installed (not sure why the PO put a bungee cord on the starter wire ):