If your PA-12, PA-18, PA-20, PA-22 or even old PA-28 has an oil cooler in the front/center of the cowl (the "Cheesegrater up Front"), you have some options when it comes to selecting/installing a Sky-Tec starter in place of the old Prestolite/Delco starters.

First off, and by a wide margin, most of our customers utilize the 122-12PM starter by modifying the oil cooler diagonal brace.

Since the advent of the Sky-Tec High-Torque Inline Lycoming starter, many of our customers have chosen to avoid any modification to their oil cooler entirely by simply installing a 122-NL starter.  However, Bill Robek of Stoddard's Aircraft Parts Center in Anchorage, AK suggests you pay special close attention to the clearance between the Sky-Tec NL starter and the vertical oil cooler brackets.  It seems the "ears" on the NL starter that were put there to emulate the location of the mid-body bolts on the most popular Prestolite starters (utilized in Piper 540 applications w/constant speed propellers so the stock Piper prop governor cable bracket could be retained and used) come within 1/2" of the Piper oil cooler vertical bracket in some cases.

High-Torque Inline starter too close for comfort?

While we know of dozens (if not hundreds) of Super Cub installations utilizing the new Sky-Tec High-Torque Inline Lycoming starter in this application with absolutely no interference whatsoever, we agree you should keep an eye on the clearance on your particular installation.  You never know what modifications and adjustments may have been made in the long history of these aircraft.  If you feel your bracket is just too close for comfort, feel free to shorten the 'ears' on your Sky-Tec starter as Bill's customer did below.  

Feel free to saw off one or both of the aluminum 'ears' as required

Doing so will not void our warranty (it will not affect performance or longevity of the Sky-Tec starter in any way).  We expect this will not even be necessary in most cases, but thought we would gladly offer it up after Bill suggested it might be a nice option to have should you need it.  We also have oodles (technical term?) of nylon nut covers for the M8 power bolt nut on Sky-Tec High-Torque (HT and NL) starters.  If you would like one, we would be happy to drop one in the mail to you.

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