Lotus Marques has manufactured a high torque starter motor as a direct replacement for the range of starter motors employed in the family of Lotus Esprit’s, including S1, S2, S3, X180, SE, S4 and S4s.
This compact starter motor may be installed in exactly the same position but offers significantly more room around the engine and engine bay.
The new starter motor employs a custom adapter plate that has a fully machined profile to ensure the correct clearance when installed on a Lotus 907, 910 or 912 cylinder block.
Since the introduction of reduction gear starters many years ago, they are now standard equipment on modern road going and race cars.
The reliability and performance of these items has been significantly improved through the use of high quality components.
This type of starter motor utilises sealed ball races to support the driven components such as the internal driven gear and pinion.
This means the rotating critical components are mainly unaffected by extremes of temperature.
A significant reduction in cranking current is achieved through the use of a reduction gearbox.
The reduction in cranking current in older model Esprit’s without electronic ignition will assist in providing a greater spark plug voltage when starting the engine.
This versatile starter motor incorporates a reduction gearbox as well as a pre-engaged pinion mechanism.
This configuration delivers maximum torque at all cranking speeds whilst the pre-engaged pinion mechanism ensures correct starter ring gear engagement (thus minimising pinion and ring gear wear).
Installation in confined spaces is made easy as the starter motor offers flexibility of orientation.
This is achieved by incorporating a vernier adjustable mounting plate.
This plate is manufactured using CNC facilities and offers angular adjustment in 20 degree increments for a full 360 degrees.
Less expensive starter motors are often compromised by limited angular adjustment.
Some high torque starter motors are poorly designed and are prone to premature failure when installed on a high capacity, high compression engine.
This is because two generic 6mm screws are expected to provide sufficient clamping pressure for the adaptor plate, and cope with high starting torque forces in the sheer plane.
Lotus Marques has overcome this design problem by incorporating two internal locating dowels that manage the high starting torque forces.
• Stater motor overall length – 195.0mm (7.670 inches)
• Maximum overall height – 130.0mm (5.11 inches)
• Body rotation/swing distance – 100mm (3.93 inches)
• CNC machined gearbox casting – Aluminium alloy AA601 (heat treated to T6 specification)
• CNC machined vernier adapter plate – Aluminium alloy AA601 (heat treated to T6 specification)
• Main body material – Aluminium alloy
• Pinion – 9 tooth
• Weight – 4.0Kgs
• Warranty – Two year
This starter motor is manufactured in Australia and offers excellent flexibility in installation plus greater reliability when compared with the original Lotus component.
It is also interesting to note there is significant weight saving over the OEM and other replacement starter motors.
The electrical connections are the same as the original stater motor so modifications are not necessary - the installation is just plug and play.