High Torque SR0408X starter on 81 aircooled Vanagon to ej22 swap

[chompy]

Hey everyone, I was curious if anyone has put the high torque starter on their early vanagon manual transmission? Van Cafe is the only site that says it will not work with the aircooled transmission because, "due to the difference in the exciter wire to the solenoid"....

This really doesn't make sense to me. If anyone has done this on an aircooled transmission I would really appreciate any info you have, and whether it does work or not.

Thanks!
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'81 Westfalia Subaru EJ22
Manual Transmission

[danfromsyr]

the stock air cooled fuel injection has 2 small wires on the solenoid.
and one large. the one large is of course the primary battery cable
one of the small ones comes from the Ignition switch and energizes the solenoid to engage the starter.
the other small wire piggy backs on the solenoid and takes that key energizer signal to the double relay to fire up the fuel pump.

since the high torque starter only has a place for 1 small energizer wire on the solenoid it won't work on stock air cooled.

it will work fine on your engine swap. your fuel pump will be triggered by the ECU in your rewiring for the swap.

they could market this to air cooled owners with a simple adapted harness that has a pigtail to plug the aircooled fuel pump signal wire into. or directions to splice that wire in when they splice the key starter wire.

stock vanagon air cooled starter

see how spade 1 & 2 are essentially the same on the back.

image credits to this thread
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=465921
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[jberger]

A wire hack or spade terminal adapter would also work for AFC owners but as previously stated, you should be fine.

J

[chompy]

[chompy]

Another quick question... In your opinion do you think it would be best to eliminate/cap off the blue/brown wire, or tie it in with the other connector?
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'81 Westfalia Subaru EJ22
Manual Transmission

[crazyvwvanman]

Your question should be asked of the person who did the wiring for your Subaru conversion.
That wire was used by the VW fuel injection system.
If the other end of the wire is now being used by the Subaru fuel injection then you need to still connect it to the starter switch wire.

Mark

[chompy]

[chompy]

I wanted to come back and report what I did with my blue/brown wire as discussed earlier, in case anyone else comes along that did the same conversion. In my case I tied this wire into the the larger wire that goes to the solenoid. Without it connected it takes multiple tries to start the van, as the fuel pump isn't running while the starter is turning over. Once connected the van starts up each time on the first try. Hopefully this helps someone else in the future if they had an aircooled conversion that is wired the same way I did mine.
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'81 Westfalia Subaru EJ22
Manual Transmission

[nunzio82]

I have a 1982 AC vanagon and I bought the HIGH Torque starter. I am very thankful of this post, I wish I would have read it before I bout the new starter. I am having the same issue as CHOMPY.
I did dint know what t do with the Blue/brown wire as the HIGH TORQUE starter did not have a place to connect or any instructions with the starter.
Like CHOPMY it takes several try before my motor will start. I would like to connect this blue/ brown wire to the new HT starter but really not sure which wire I would need to connect it to,
Please reach back to me to let me know how to correct this issue.

Thank you
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1982 Westfalia camper vanagon air-cooled

[westy81vancouver]

@nunzio82 any luck with this? Did you simply splice the two spade connections together?

Thanks!
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81 Westy

[pathao]

[westy81vancouver]

I did end up splicing them together to the new TDI connector. Everything works great!
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81 Westy

[pathao]

[westy81vancouver]

Hi @pathao yes I run a mostly stock 2.0L FI aircooled (Raby 9550 cam with solid lifters). I went with the Westy Ventures adapter plate (http://www.westyventures.com/parts.html) and LAtrical starter (https://www.ebay.ca/itm/290468609810?mkevt=1&m...rxPWVx5TBw)
I went with this setup mostly as preventative maintenance and for the greater availability of TDI starters while on the road should I ever need to replace it. It's only been installed for a day, but so far so good. It now sounds like a modern vehicle on startup (which is kind of funny to me), but quickly returns to that classic VW sound we know and love once the engine is running.

Here are a few photos of the install.

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81 Westy

[pathao]

Great

Thanks

Will look into that.
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1982 AC P27 - 2.0 FI FED - 091 - BA6


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