Gottagofaster,I found myself in this same position not too long ago myself.I have two electric starters.One is a a Magnum and the other is a standard Sullivan.Neither one will turn over my Homelite 30 or my friends Homelite 25...at all.....and this is with a brand new 9AH battery installed in the flight box.I priced out one of the larger more powerful Sullivan starters and decided immediately that I wasn't going down that road.After all,the name of the game here is to keep the project cheap right!
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Well ,one day I was over at my local Canadian Tire store and was playing around with some of the cordless drills when I stumbled upon this two gear ratio 18 volt cordless drill.It had this slide mechanism on top of the drill that would change the gear ratio of the drill.I got to wondering about the possibilities of taking my Sullivan starter cup off of my Sullivan starter and installing it on a modified bolt that could be chucked into the drill.This drill had some serious torque to it but yet still seem to have enough R.P.M to it even under load.To make a long story short,$40 later and a little MacGyvering (hack sawing,filing,grinding of a matching threaded bolt,and of course LocTited all together),I had myself a Sullivan starter cone assembly that could be chucked into my 18 volt cordless drill.After testing the new starter assembly on my Homelite 30,I can tell you that this thing works like a charm(that two speed gear ratio really makes a big difference in starting).The beauty here of this starter is that you can still use it as a regular around the house drill and it sure makes justifying the expenditure to your wife a lot easier.Especially when you tell her how much easier and more efficient you'll be at fixing up stuff for her with your newly acquired tool.
Hey,if it works and gets you by........go with it dudes!I found that by adding a aluminum starter cone(5/16"-24) to the engine,it allows the starter to grip the crankshaft much better and deliver more torque and r.p.m to the engine allowing it to fire up faster.It also keeps the starter centered much better and generates much less vibration into the firewall and airframe.Hope this is of some assistance to you.
