Curious what starter you guys are using and why. My M7 235C has the io540-w1a5 and skytec lists multiple options to use. Do these engines suffer from kickback? I tried calling skytec support with no luck. Thanks
ERZ-8011
SRZ-9021
149-NL
149-12LS
149-12HT

What comes with the engines is the 149-12LS.

Thanks for the info Duane

After a few false starts from Sky-Tec, I was able to install the lightweight starter that I won in the Maule Homecoming raffle last year. Sky-Tec didn't give me the right part number for my Lycoming O-360-C1F to begin with and they sent the wrong starter. My A&P talked to them and they finally sent the right starter about a year after I won it. It works great and is lighter than the stock starter. They require a placard on the panel that says not to run it for more than 10 seconds without a cool down.

It's a direct drive starter so you don't need the starter solenoid (contactor) but my A&P wired mine to use it anyway. The alternative is to rewire the battery cable around the solenoid and run a long wire from the ignition switch to the starter. The only thing you would gain with this arrangement is taking the starter solenoid out of the picture as a point of failure or voltage drop.

My own experience is that the LS series is often inadequate to reliably crank a 540, especially with the battery in the back, with the long cables, and if the plane has some years on it. The NL is heavier, but cranks MUCH faster and more forcefully in those circumstances. No having to hit the starter two or three times to get past the first compression stroke and get it spinning.

Well worth the extra weight, in my mind, given the remote places I go.

I have the same motor as you (IO-540-W5A1) and installed a Skytec 149-12HT. I still have a bit of a hesitation at the first compression stroke like Andy mentioned.

Tim

After a number of Skytec starters becoming weak I went back to using B&C starters

I also have a Cessna 172 that is leased to a flight school. It see around 600hrs a year. We moved away from the Skytec Starters completely due to them falling apart pretty quickly. They used to be great. Then the quality just kept getting worse, and they would not warranty anything. I moved away from them, and tried a hartzel starter from aircraft spruce. It went 2500hrs with no problems. Just changed it a couple of months ago when we did a motor, was still going strong. I completely understand the difference with the Maule world and flight training, just got tired of changing starters that would not last for a year.

Just my 2 cents, I know lots of people that have had good luck with them.