These will exchange yours for £87

http://www.mister-auto.co.uk/en/starter ... 33206.html

Yep as I expected, considerably cheaper than that french site, I should have got a price for an exchange unit from my local-ish distributer when they quoted me £137 for the new one. I'm still a bit hesitant to go for a recon, even though Valeo quote them as the same power as new ones.

Longterm it may make more sense to swap back to the 602 parts, and I was looking at These on ebay the listing claims 1.4kw so I checked with the seller who said it was correct. I still don't believe them, I'm just naturally that sceptical!

That one looks very similar to one I bought from AMI2CV over here. It was rubbish - turned over slow and in the end stopped working. When I took it apart it had plastic cogs inside and the motor looked like a cordless drill. Told them and they supplied a second hand original type and much better and stonger turn.

http://www.ami-2cv.com/electricite-2cv- ... velle.html

Thanks for the warning, they do look similar, I was a bit suspicious of the low price and high power claims but I'll definitely avoid it now.

I think the best option is to get a new unit from ECAS and swap the ring gear, which is a lot more work, but with the way the gearbox is I may be pulling it all apart soon anyway. Or do I go with the cheaper, simpler, option of a recon visa one.

I think I'll strip and clean the old one, and see if it improves enough to last while I make up my mind about the gearbox.

What do you have in mind then, maybe we can help you (probably not but anyway)

The gearbox is broken, again, 1st and 2nd gear are only there 20% of the time. But I'm bored of buying replacement gearboxes, maybe I'll take the car off the road and have the gearbox rebuilt by a professional, but then I'd need another car while it is being fixed.

To be honest I'm fed up of fixing the car.

I feel your pain!
I purchased a new valeo high torque starter for my 602/Lna combo, having seen what a difference it made in my DS, only to find it didn't fit.
I also have a 1015gs box on standby if the Lna craps itself but after opening it up for inspection I wouldn't risk it. The Lna on the other hand was clean and clearly serviced recently.

How about swapping back in your LNA box while you get the 5speed gs rebuilt, then you can also swap the visa ringear for a 602 and fit a high torque starter...

Thought, is it a visa flywheel you have or will you encounter the same starter issues I had with the 602 flywheel!?

Harley

Joolz,

I have some internals parts from the boxes I have used as diffs.
Any use to you?

Cheers
Peter

Well I'm amazed anyone's still reading this, after I've been agonizing over the merits of various starter motors for over a page. I've ordered this one now so I'll shut up about it until such time as it gets here and isn't any good.

@Harley, Swapping Gearboxes is a PITA at the best of times, I'm still in the process of redoing the wiring to make removing the engine easier. To make it worse, if you remember I changed the design of the g'box mounts when I swapped to the 5sp, so the LNA won't go back in without making some new brackets.

Swapping to the 602 starter shouldn't give any great hassle, I'm reasonably sure that it's dimensionally the same as the Visa one. The problem you had with it not reaching the ring-gear is down to the bell housing, I overcame that by moving the ring-gear to the very back of the flywheel, something that you can only do with some flywheels, but finding the right type so far seems quite random.

@Peter, I think considering the bad luck(?) I've had so far with scrapyard gearboxes, and the fact that this one is a bit hybrid, so not that straight forward to replace, I would probably like to get it rebuilt, so any second hand internals you have could be very useful. Please hang on to them and I will give you a shout when I know what I need.
Although it did improve when I put the racing oil in it, the piece of tooth that came out with the old oil makes me think the remaining 1st/2nd issue isn't going to go away.

You see, we could help you (well sorry not me (this time))