I'm in the middle of replacing the starter on my 87. The old one came out pretty easily, but I can't get the new one to hook on to the bracket at the top, toward the front of the engine.

It seems like the starter just needs to 'seat' another 1/8th inch, or so, to clear enough to fit within the bracket. Is it likely the bell housing is the problem? Or, should I just loosen the bracket. If it's teh bell housing, do I need to loosen it or completely remove it?

Listening for the voice of experience

Thanks!

 

Loosen the bracket.

 

Before I saw a reply, I decided to try loosening the flywheel cover and that made the difference; I had to wedge the cover back on after I was done. It was a bear getting the big bolts threaded, but other than that the swap was pretty straight forward.

For anyone else tackling this one... the big starter mounting bolts are 9/16, the flywheel cover bolts are 10mm, the big post on the solenoid is 5/8 and the small one is 5/16.

There werre no shims on the starter I removed, so I didn't bother with them on the new one (the teeth looked fine). I also didn't go through the whole process of measuring the ring gear clearance. I can only imagine how much fun that would have been--shimming, tightening, measuring, drinking, loosening, shimming... talk about doubling the time for the job!

And the big, bold WARNING sheet that came with the Autolite starter with the brash warnings of 'Starter Death'--holy cow! Maybe that's what they need to do to make sure you ensure the connections are clean and the battery has enough charge, but it seemed like scare tactics almost ;-)

I *did* put the charger on the battery because I know it was drained way down the last day with the huge draw the starter was putting on it. It engaged smoothly and fired right up after I got everything buttoned up.