If you carry a spare other than belts and ignition module / coil you will never need it. So it is good insurance to carry them. Dan Gregg use to carry lots of junk that he never used. After he blew the second engine in a year or so I suggested that he needed to carry one of those with his spares. He did not appreciate my humor or suggestion on this issue.

I use to carry a lot of that junk (spares). One day I took most of it out and moved it to my basement. I think the only thing I ever used was one module and coil, and one belt. A starter could put you at the side of the road but they seldom fail and they usually go intermittent before completely failing.

I can not remember the last time that I put a starter on any vehicle of ours. All of my vehicles have over 140,000 miles on them with one near 250,000 miles. The newest one I own is 13 years old. I remember having a starter problem in the 70's on a Toyota PU truck. It turned out to be a bunch of frozen slush inside the starter.

Ken B.

I should not have made this posting. Now I'll have to go build up a spare for my impending GMC starter failure.

I just remembered that I have put bushings in two Onan starters (not mine) and bushing and brushes in my airplane starter.

Alternators and generators fail more often.