My husband and his mechanic are pulling their hair out over this. The situation is this: HELP!
I purchased a 1968 GMC 2500 pickup from the second owner about 6 months ago. It has the original 396 and Turbo 400 automatic that it was built with. The truck has 65k original miles and the condition shows it. It was used with a cabover camper for fishing trips only and sat most of the time. I purchased this truck to use in conjunction with two other C20’s in my business.
About 2 months ago I experienced trouble starting the truck, so I bought a new battery and had my garage, a former Chevy dealer, order a brand new Delco starter from Summit racing in Reno. That starter lasted about 2 hours and the truck had to be towed. I had the garage reinstall my old starter while they ordered another from Summit. The new one lasted about 2 days, yes brand new.
To shorten this story, over the next 3 weeks, the garage has installed 6 more starters from NAPA. O’Reillys and another parts house in Redding, about 70 miles from my town. All have either failed or would not start the truck. Many would not even get the truck out of the garage. I am flummoxed, as is my mechanic. He is ASE certified, as is his son, his father and his grand-father before him. He has sought out experts on starters to no avail.
The truck has, once again, the original starter, which is working great, but I want a new or rebuilt one. Any ideas?
Keep using the original starter. Have it rebuilt… if you can find a shop to do that… when and if it fails.
By the way, Delco no longer exists (and hasn’t made starters in over 20 years) so those are not real Delco starters. This 55 year old truck will give you more worries than the starter. As you found, replacement parts, especially for older vehicles, sucks.