300GD New starter motor - WOSP High Torque

I had been hoping that the starter on my truck would hold out until she came off the road to prep for transplant, but the wet weather has started to kill the starter (solenoid becoming temperamental) which was a re-mfrd unit that had only done 24 months 

Anyway, I had a WOSP racing starter motor on the bench, ready to go into the OM606 I'm building so when I had a moment earlier this week I switched it in to the 617 to see what it was like.

I'm impressed. The unit develops a lot more torque and speed, cranking the engine aggressively with that characteristic higher pitched whine that you get from starters on high performance engines (its only the spoiled by the agricultural follow through from the 617    Still, a few months and the 606 will be in and it will sound like it should..).

As you can see from the pics the WOSP units are substantially smaller (and a lot lighter) than the OEM, but feature fully supported shaft so don't need the pig-nose/ end spindle bearing that the standard OEM Bosch units do.

Fitting is straightforward  (you'll need some M12 x 105mm high-tensile bolts, nylocks and 4 suitable washers (12.9 cap screws are a good bet)), about 1hr to do if you take your time.

No idea what new Bosch units go for. Re-mfrd are about £200-ish, these are more at about £350, but worth the extra IMO