Replacing the starter....PITA
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Joined: Aug 2011
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Replacing the starter....PITA
Last week my starter decided to stop working on me. I had to get push started in order to make the 2 hour drive home....I made sure to only hit drive-thru for food and not turn off the car while gassing up. hehe.
I read a DIY on replacing the starter and had some issues that weren't addressed and thought I would post them here in case anyone else ran into those problems:
#1) In order to get to the starter you have to remove the intermediate exhaust pipe. Really not a big deal except I had to hit most of the bolts with some WD40 and let them soak prior to getting the front ones to move. The issue I ran into is when removing the rear bolts (2 on each side), the inside bolts both had the weld run into the bolt heads. On the passenger side, It just had a small amount of splatter that touched against the bolt head and I was able to put a breaker bar on the bolt head and break it free. The driver's side was a different monster. The weld ran the full length of one side of the both head. I tried running a drill bit up the side of it, using a small dremel and just cussing at it....nothing seems to give it enough room or to separate the weld overflow from the bolt head. I finally just got frustrated and pulled the entire exhaust towards the rear and there was enough movement to get it to separate from the front without having to unbolt the rear (which wasn't going to happen with that weld in place).
#2) There isn't clearance to get to the electrical bolts at the rear of the starter. I just unbolted the starter and brought it down and then was able to get a wrench on the electrical connections on the starter. BUT, the connectors were a little brittle and I broke the small O-ring connector....had to cut it off and splice on a new (longer) wire.
#3) The new (reman) starter I purchased from Auto Zone had a different setup for the inside bolt on the starter (see the picture). It required a longer bolt (which was supplied), but that larger piece of metal that the inside bolt went through hit against the car and would not allow me to fit the starter into the flywheel hole. There was no angle that would allow me to get it in there. What I finally noticed was that there was a large plastic piece (spacer?) that was bolted flush against the hole were you insert the starter into meet up with the flywheel. If you loosen the bolt that holds this plastic ring on, it allows the plastic ring to shift and allow you more room to maneuver the starter into the mounting position. It is obvious how to loosen it once you remove the starter. It fits flush against where the starter gets put against the flywheel.
Without those issues, this would have been a much easier install. Fighting against the welded on bolts and trying to figure out how to get the starter to fit with the new mounting version cost me an over an hour of frustration.
I read a DIY on replacing the starter and had some issues that weren't addressed and thought I would post them here in case anyone else ran into those problems:
#1) In order to get to the starter you have to remove the intermediate exhaust pipe. Really not a big deal except I had to hit most of the bolts with some WD40 and let them soak prior to getting the front ones to move. The issue I ran into is when removing the rear bolts (2 on each side), the inside bolts both had the weld run into the bolt heads. On the passenger side, It just had a small amount of splatter that touched against the bolt head and I was able to put a breaker bar on the bolt head and break it free. The driver's side was a different monster. The weld ran the full length of one side of the both head. I tried running a drill bit up the side of it, using a small dremel and just cussing at it....nothing seems to give it enough room or to separate the weld overflow from the bolt head. I finally just got frustrated and pulled the entire exhaust towards the rear and there was enough movement to get it to separate from the front without having to unbolt the rear (which wasn't going to happen with that weld in place).
#2) There isn't clearance to get to the electrical bolts at the rear of the starter. I just unbolted the starter and brought it down and then was able to get a wrench on the electrical connections on the starter. BUT, the connectors were a little brittle and I broke the small O-ring connector....had to cut it off and splice on a new (longer) wire.
#3) The new (reman) starter I purchased from Auto Zone had a different setup for the inside bolt on the starter (see the picture). It required a longer bolt (which was supplied), but that larger piece of metal that the inside bolt went through hit against the car and would not allow me to fit the starter into the flywheel hole. There was no angle that would allow me to get it in there. What I finally noticed was that there was a large plastic piece (spacer?) that was bolted flush against the hole were you insert the starter into meet up with the flywheel. If you loosen the bolt that holds this plastic ring on, it allows the plastic ring to shift and allow you more room to maneuver the starter into the mounting position. It is obvious how to loosen it once you remove the starter. It fits flush against where the starter gets put against the flywheel.
Without those issues, this would have been a much easier install. Fighting against the welded on bolts and trying to figure out how to get the starter to fit with the new mounting version cost me an over an hour of frustration.
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 81
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6th Gear
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 6
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From: Paris
Hi,
Sorry for my bad English (I'm a poor french man ;-))
Just want to thank you RV13 for his post !!!
I though I need to remove the right collector to put my starter correctly. In fact, reading your post, I just loosen the bolt of the plastic ring, and it was OK to place the stater
Now, I hope I have done everything right, because when I start the engine now, I have a strange noise (I didn't got before with my old starter), which stop as soon as the motor start.
I don't unterstand because there is not a lot of possibility to place correctly the starter with his 2 long bolt.
If anyone has an idea ???
Many Thanks
Regards
Glo
Sorry for my bad English (I'm a poor french man ;-))
Just want to thank you RV13 for his post !!!
I though I need to remove the right collector to put my starter correctly. In fact, reading your post, I just loosen the bolt of the plastic ring, and it was OK to place the stater
Now, I hope I have done everything right, because when I start the engine now, I have a strange noise (I didn't got before with my old starter), which stop as soon as the motor start.
I don't unterstand because there is not a lot of possibility to place correctly the starter with his 2 long bolt.
If anyone has an idea ???
Many Thanks
Regards
Glo
Last edited by globus; Apr 28, 2013 at 01:33 PM.
