MKIII starter rebuild--bushing or needle bearing?

Hi all,

I've been grateful for everyone's help as I've been sorting through a few final issues as I get my MKIII put back together.

Everything is now buttoned up save for the starter, which I realized needed a rebuild when I noticed the gear-side bronze bushing had worked itself loose and was poking through the now ruined oil seal. I wish AN stocked parts for these starters! Anyhow, doing some research I saw some folks on youtube have upgraded their 2 brush starters by replacing the bronze bushings with a Harley-style sealed bearing on the gear side and a needle bearing on the commutator side. I don't think I'll be able to get my end plate machined for the sealed bearing, but I am considering using the needle bearing since its a drop in replacement. The thing is, even the Harley Prestolites used a bronze bushing on the commutator side and were perfectly good starters, so I am curious to hear whether this "upgrade" is a no-brainer for people or if they would have reservations to use a needle bearing for that bushing. For example, I can imagine that tiny bearing in its blind hole will be a lot harder to pull than a standard bronze bushing during the next rebuild. But maybe it will long outlast a bronze bushing? Is the reduced friction a needle bearing might provide at that location really going to make any performance difference? I would love to hear thoughts.

Thanks,
Anthony

The Dinodave starter plush hevyduty cabled is there easy way.

Very happy with it!

When I put the "Harley" starter on mine, I did not go to needle bearings. Figured if ok for a Harley, it should be ok for Nort. That was probably 10 years ago, no problems.

NorCat said:

The Dinodave starter plush hevyduty cabled is there easy way.

Very happy with it!

Click to expand...

I've heard they are excellent, but that's not the direction I'm going at this point. My MKIII came with a working starter and I've upgraded my stock cables so I expect a rebuild will be sufficient. If its not, I'll at that point consider investing in something more expensive.

I use a D.D. starter as the best option .
That said , I've also got a Prestolite original starter that I gave to someone in the States a while back to improve with the H.D. 4 brush . It works fine . This was before the vastly better D.D. option . Sending out good luck to ya .

Some info on needle bearing conversion in the post below.
The starter functioned ok, allthough I did not use it much as I normally kickstart the bike.