Starter Replacement Question

#1

I just read the article at Pelican parts that states that you either have to take the manifold off or remove the transmission to change the starter motor.

In the E30 book I have, it sounds much simpler and only involves lowering the back of the transmission to make room to give the starter room to get.

I plan on tackling this tomorrow (Wednesday). I have changed a clutch which involved taking out the tranny. Not horribly difficult, but at the same time, not something I really want to do again this soon.

Any help or knowledge is appreciated.

Thanks,
Jason

#2

There are really only two bolts/nuts that have to come out as well as the starter wires. It’ll be tough to get a wrench on those bolts/nuts without having the plenum off. Tilting the engine back will help tremendously to get to those top two bolts. Also make sure you have a lot of extensions and a good flex coupler. This should be entirely possible without removing the tranny.

#3

Yes, I’ve done this twice without having the intake or the transmission out. Like JP said, make sure you have the swivel socket, extensions of various sizes and shapes, a few open end wrenches and other random tools. Prepare yourself to do some drywall repair, have some band aids laying around, possibly some bondo and spray paint depending on your personality type. It’s a pretty frustratingly simple task, especially for one person.

Edit: Make sure you disconnect the battery first.

#4

The bolt heads are usually Torx, but the real problem is the nuts on the forward end of the starter. The bottom one is easy, but top one is a pain.

If you’ve got an impact gun, you may be able to zing off the top bolt with nothing more than a fingertip wedged in to keep the nut from turning.

Putting it back on is a different story. Tilting the motor for clearance and small hands help a lot. Some try reaching up from below, others try snaking around the manifold. Both are lousy. If you manage to get the nut started, using the 2-fingertip method, you may luck out again and be able to zing the bolt back on with the gun. If that doesn’t work, the perfect collection of wobble extensions and exact length will let you run a socket/extension forward, to about the front end of the motor, where you can get a ratchet on it. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes, sometimes it takes over an hour. I’ve never understood why.

Here’s a tip: Have extra 17mm nuts laying around. You’ll probably drop between 1 and 3 nuts somewhere between the starter and engine block, never to be seen again. Spares speed the work.