Starter motor replacement

[Guest]

Just thought while i was changing the starter i would do a guide for anyones future reference.

Simple but very awkward job. I had the luxury of already having my exhaust manifold off but i have abs which makes life that much harder.

First start off by removing the battery, for those who dont know take off both terminals (13mm nuts) and remove the battry stay with a 7mm



The battery then pulls out.

I would also advise to remove any air filter, airbox to do this as they will definately get in the way of accesing and seeing bolts

13mm to remove the copper nut from the drivers side of the starter motor and remove the spade fitting that is the white wire from the starter.

Again i stress that the manifold has been removed and this relatively simple task would need doing from underneath. Some may opt to even remove the driveshaft but its unnecesary.




Top front starter bolt, 16mm remove. Located underneath the thermostat housing and behind main coolant pipe.




The following picture is upsidedown but its the angle i was laying over the engine so i apologise.



In the picture the bolt i have hold of is the bottom starter bolt and the one on the far left is the top rear. The other bolt is just a bolt i use to line up the starter when i refit so ignore this for now (this picture was taken when the new starter was in place). So undo the other two bolts and the top front bolt and the starter should fall out...literally.

Some engines may have engine loom clips on them to hold the loom onto the starter in some way but i have already removed all of mine when i fitted the engine in may.

You should be left with a starter that is very awkward to get out and a few bolts lol.

Two mating faces



So on refitting i advise you to do the opposite of the above and weasle the new starter into place. (obviously) The bolt i said to ignore is just another starter bolt i had. I find it helps to line the starter up again as it can be a complete cunt to realign if the starter is an aftermarket starter.



So put these 3 bolts back in. including the bolt on the 'bottom' of the picture as this is the alignment 'pin' so to speak. If you are using a starter bolt for this pin it will only turn a few times into the hole. dont force it as it comes back out again anyway. refit the 3 main bolts and hand tighten

Pop the battery back in and hope to god that you engine turns because otherwise it makes a disgusting grinding noise lol. If the grinding occurs you are semi on your own but keep tightening one bolt on the starter with a spanner and loosening to move the starter again until the engine turns. I cant really explain this very well so you are kind of on your own. Once turning over nicely do the bolts up nice and tight! And remove the alignment pin/bolt

Reverse the battery step and replace filter.



Lovely

 

[Guest]

Nice guide dude :thumleft:

 

[Guest]

nice mate ive never had to remove the manilfold to change a starter but i have small hands :lol:

 

[Guest]

manifold was off big ron. my manifold gasket was leaking so it made sense to do it all at once. made the starter easier to do anyway

 

[Guest]

sweet i must read things properly but ive just woke up :lol:

 

[Guest]

Nice guide, Nice samco's

 

[Guest]

nice guide!

 

[Guest]

Good guide, those things a Pr1cks to do with the retainer brackets on, ditch them!

 

[Guest]

yeah i never bother with putting the retainer bracket back on either! more weight! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Guest]

i cant remember ever refitting anything that doesnt have a moving of electrical part on it tbh haha

 

[Guest]

Thanks for this guide! It was very useful to have pics to identify the bolts to begin with and to know it could be done without removing exhaust manifold / downpipe. Saved me a lot of time and skin - cheers.


In case it's useful to anyone here's what happened with mine:

Symptoms
Problems with hot starting. I could always hear the solenoid click but the starter motor was struggling to crank the engine. Got worse over a couple of weeks before starter motor finally died.

Problems with removing
Starter motor heat shield bolts were difficult to locate with the exhaust manifold in place. Using flexible head 13mm ratchet spanner helped.

I got lazy about disconnecting the battery one time when I was working near the positive connection to the starter motor. The shock welded the edge of a spanner. Lesson learned.

Problems with refitting
Solenoid wire (white with black plastic connector) was loose on new starter motor causing poor connection. Popped off the black connector and bent the metal in a bit.

Starter motor alignment. Don't get me started... Hours spent. New starter motor wouldn't align properly when any of the three bolts were more than finger tight. Sound of starter motor not meeting flywheel if too far away: whizz! Sound of motor not meeting flywheel straight: metallic note as solenoid moves out followed by normal-ish cranking but a nasty high pitched noise as solenoid moves back: veeeh!

The only way I could align the new starter (Lucas LRT194) was to knock out the alignment dowel (slot head screwdriver hammered from behind dowel). Then, using a bolt in the hole that had the dowel, rotating the starter clockwise as far as it would go whilst torquing the crap out of the bolt closest to the radiator to lock it in place before tightening the others.

 

[Guest]

Starter motor alignment. Don't get me started... Hours spent.

I'm quite pleased I got a second hand Williams starter when I changed mine, aligned perfectly first time thank fuck!

 

[Guest]

Never had an issue with alignment personally, using the locating dowel!

I did this job recently and just removed the downpipe. Was pretty easy with that ou the way to be fair. I did re-fit the bracket behind the starter but didn't bolt the starter to it, as this is what the heatshield bolts to.