Good afternoon everyone
So in my 70 Cuda (383, 4 speed) I have a mini starter in it currently. I am kind of getting nostalgic for the "laughing dolphin" sound of the original Chrysler starter. I'm thinking of putting one back in.

My question is were all original starters the same across the board or were there heavy duty ones? Did industrial or heavy duty applications get a higher torque starter?

Thank you for an help

There was a HD version, IIRC the armature and main housing were longer.

Probably not found on any SB cars though

"Laughing dolphin" ! Never heard that before, love it !

Seems some rebuilders change the sound somehow - I have the same situation with one of my cars.
Its starter works perfectly but lacks that authentic sound; it's more of the mini-starter sound.
To me, that "proper" sound is part of the experience on a restored car.

This. Side by side the difference will be obvious if you have the two in front of you. Now that I think of it, at some poin t in time I possessed 3 sizes of varying case lengths......

There are a couple of length versions. You used to be able to get the HD long one by ordering a starter for a 440, but over the years, that went away pretty quickly. A replacement starter from a chain store gets you which ever one someone turned in, all are listed under one number these days.

My old 71 Hemi Charger used to require a starter replacement each summer - probably from the heat. I was getting them from a rebuilder near home - I think he charged me $15.00 for them back in the early 80's. Once I tried a HD version - did not last as long as a standard one! The started also was "protected" by a factory heat shield, which made the starter installation a LOT more difficult. About the third time I did the job, I discarded the OE heat shield. Looking back now, that was probably not a smart thing to do. Does anybody even reproduce them?

To get the original starter sound you need the short case with a shunt coil in it. The original pre electronic ignition starters had 3 pulling coils and one shunt coil in the black part of the case, the shunt coil slows the starter down, and along with the gear reduction gives that sound. Here is the catch, they do not start high compresion engines as well or last as long. The later short starters with 4 pulling coils sound almost the same and start way better, most remans that have the bolt in solenoid will all have 4 pulling coils. The later long starter has 4 pulling coils and has less of a gear reduction so the engine turns over way faster, still sounds like a mopar, just different. The short has almost the same power output as the long, just at a lower rpm. Some of the remans back in the day were really bad, the new stuff tends to have all new coils and solenoid and last pretty good, I do my own but for what a reman costs it is worth it to buy just for all the new parts and use my date coded case.

If my memory is correct, 3250 is the regular unit and 3258 is the HD one. These are parts store rebuilt numbers. The HD unit was used on the FMJ Cop Cars.

Never seen a size difference, but

The late 70s manuals mentions a difference in size either /6 to V8 or 318 to 360. I forget which one now.

The longer starter started in 1975, 360-440 1.8 horsepower with a 2-1 gear reduction vs the short 1.5 hp 4-1 reduction for other engines. I am not sure if all 360s got them but the big block c-bodies did for sure. Cranking rpm is over double.

i was going to mention a hp difference, but i wasn't sure what it was. i'm pretty sure the cop 360 [e48 ?] got the big hp starter. i have one of those engine/transmission combos on the shelf, but the starter is toward the wall, preventing me from measuring it or getting a pic to clarify.
thanks for the clarification !

I have a high torque with a '78 date code and my original '64 starter.
Hope this pic works

Like several have said there is a long and short version. Standard and HD as it would be.

If you are going for OEM correct they also made the early ones with no bolts on the side of the solenoid and the later ones had 2 bolts on the side the solenoid. The starters with the bolts are easier to rebuild.

As for when they switch over I do not know.

This is a funny thread. I have saved a starter to specifically use on my `70 Cuda when done. It has the sweetest tha da da da sound. I agree they don't all sound the same. I do think rebuilding them and maybe mixing components changes them.

The last couple of remans I bought have been the long nose 1.8hp versions and they don't seem to sound the same as the old slower cranking ones.
The mini starter on my '85 Ram went a couple of years ago and I replaced it with a old style long nose reman and I thought they didn't really sound much different.