Replacing the Starter

robsaari · Mar 12th, 2006, 09:19 PM

The starter on my wife's '88 Stanza died a while ago. This is without a doubt the hardest to get to starter I've ever seen. I'm sure there's an easier way to get it out.

I put the car on ramps and removed the intake air plenum (my terminology) that the ignition coils are mounted on. From below, I unbolted the section of flex exhaust pipe so I could reach other parts to remove. Parts like the rear vibration dampner and motor/transmission braces. After squeezing my fat, clumsy hands in and unbolting the starter, I slid it backwards to remove it.

Unfortunately, the rear engine mount was in the way. No matter how much I twisted and turned it, there just wasn't enough room to swing the starter out.
<grrr..>

Again, I'm sure there's a better way, but I wound up putting a jack underneath the transmission and unbolted the transmission mount. On the opposite side, I unbolted the engine mount between the head and the passenger side fender. After a little gentle persuasion, I was able to push the engine far enough toward the driver side that I was finally able to get the starter out.

Originally my plan was to just "recondition" the original starter and put it back in. I've had a lot of success doing this with other cars in the past, but as hard as it was to get this one out, I'm putting a new starter in it so, with hope, I'll never have to fool with it again!

Anybody else know the right way to get one of these starters out?

robsaari · Mar 18th, 2006, 01:51 PM

So less than a week after spending $130 and 5 1/2 hours replacing the starter, I was driving the car home from work when the transmission died with a very loud thunk...

At first I thought one of the CV joints had let go, but that wasn't the case. Not sure what happened to it, but there appeared to be some transmission fluid dripping from underneath.

Anybody looking for a parts car?

**Asleep** · Mar 18th, 2006, 02:13 PM

wow... that really sucks...