Do I need a "sealed starter"?
 

The other day I killed my starter offroading before school (I was with a couple of my jeep friends and had to show what my rover could do) I was using another friends of mine land and had permission. Anyways after doing a couple easy trails, I high tailed it off to school while on my way to school, I hit a couple of puddles (Slightly muddy water) and made it to school with no problem. Once school was dismissed I tried to start my rover and nothing, just a couple cranks and nothing. Anyways long story short I had a professional replace my starter, he told me that I got water in the starter and that was what my problem. He said that I needed a SEALED STARTER is there such a thing? I've never heard of someone flooding their starter.

Hope this made since

thanks Collin

Since factory Discos are set up to go "wading", our starters must be sealed enough. BTW, how much for the replaced starter, including labor?

That is 100% hog wash, electric motors do not care if they are underwater or not, at least not D/C motors.
Your truck could be upto the door handles in water and the starter would work.
Ever seen my wading video on youtube?
My starter still works, it was not the water that killed your starter.

I happen to have my starter out (every other damn part too), and it looks pretty well sealed to me.

parts and install was $250, I highly recommend having a pro do it, or make a slit in the inner passenger fender! (the guy who installed the starter is a good friend of the family, so he gave me a brake) the part was $112 with a $22 core fee so the new part was only $90.

I think my the guy who installed the starter was looking out for my best interest, and I respect that, BUT thats not going to stop me from wading my rover a foot or so in a rive and throwing a fishing line in (thats what me senior pic gonna be for yearbook)

:pBTW my Teflon gears where sheared to bits. When I start her now it almost sounds like a TDI! Well at least in my universe it does

Starter replacement isn't hard. Just need the extensions. Shouldn't ever pay someone for that. You can do it in 2 hrs the first time. Way faster second time

I just replaced my starter after months of it acting up. Back in April it wouldn't disengage after starting and had that "grinding" noise. Turned it off and back on and it fixed itself. However, everytime I had started it since it was slow to disengage after starting. Two weeks in Kentucky, after going through numerous water and mud holes and then sitting overnight, it took about 6-7 attempts to start before the starter would actually engage.

So this last weekend I pulled the starter off my parts truck and bench tested it. It tested good with the gear engaging and disengaging smoothly. When I pulled the starter off my good truck I quickly saw the problem. The gear and sliding shaft the gear sits on was quite dirty. The gear was difficult to engage and disengage. The electrical components of the starter were fine, but the mechanical components had seen better days. Old age and repeated dunkings had taken their toll.

Regarding the sealed starter. I had thought about using some RTV on tha mating surface of the starter but thought better of it. The flywheel housing is not sealed so sealing the starter to it would accomplish little.

I would recommend replacing those silly socket cap screws with regular bolts, 3/8" x 2" I believe. If I wasn't under a time crunch I would have run an extra long bolt to the top. I think a 3/8" x 8" with a spacer tube would fit perfect and eliminate the need for contorting and socket extensions in the future.