auto/manual starter compatability

hey all my starter suddenly died on new year's eve. 1990 metro 1.0 w/manual trans. the obvious question is would a starter from a metro with an auto trans work? i'm guessing no, the parts store says there's about an $80 difference between the two!

next question, i checked ebay and there are plenty of starters for 1990 metros, but most of them don't specify if they are for auto or manual transmissions. does anyone know if it would be possible to tell the difference just by looking at it? it would certainly be better to know BEFORE i buy it! on ebay i can get one for a fraction of the cost of a new/reman unit!

PS - i love this car, i bought it in 99 from a dealer that the original owner traded it in at, it had 77,000 miles when i got it, now almost 8 years later it still only has 122,000 and this is the first non-maintenance engine component i've had to replace! i'm sure i can get another 10-15k out of it.

Well, all I can tell you is that I had a near new Starter on the 94 Geo Metro/Auto trans car I HAD been driving, When the Auto trans died and I Picked up a 94 Metro with 5 Speed manual trans, then did an engine swap into the 5 speed manual car, The starter from the Auto Trans car Would Not Fit....:banghead: . I had 2 other starters from manual trans Geo's and had to use one of them! The Auto trans starter I sold to the highest bidder off on E-Bay for $30.00 , less than 1 year old and I paid $98.00 for it...:disappoin . However, it was of no use to me anymore! Cant say for same for sure on a 1990....But the 94 Auto and Manual trans Geo starters didn't interchange on the cars. They were different part numbers on the AC-Delco website as well. BTW, I dont know why the Auto parts store is telling you there is an $80.00 price difference between the 2 starters....Advanced auto parts website shows the Auto trans starter at $118.88 and the Manual trans starter at $108.88.

maybe he said 18, but he said "wow that's a big difference". maybe that's big to him lol i dunno. anyways i found one on ebay, the auction didn't specify if it was for auto or manual so i wrote the guy, he said it's for manual so i bought it up. hopefully he's right. i don't know if it was worth waiting 5 days (with no car) to save $40 ($58 total). i'll live...