replacing a starter

s0ad · **Joined:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:35 pm **Posts:** 8

recently, my starter completely crapped out. I have a '89 Delta 88 Royale 3.8L 3800 VIN "C". Has anyone replaced a starter on this model of car, or know where I can find some pretty good diagrams or something to help me along? And if you have replaced one, can you tell me exactly how hard it is and what you had to do to get to it and take it out?

87Delta · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:10 am

Well I be dammned, I gotta do one this weekend as well! There are just 2 bolts holding on the stater. First you gotta disconnect your negative battery terminal and remove connections to the starters solonoid.

After that there are two bolt to remove as shown in this picture. However, remove the smaller bolt first and just loosen the longer one twords the engine.

As you remove the first bolt (#1) and loosen the second one you need to pull out the shim (#2) as shown in the picture.

Finally you can remove the last bolt and the starter itself.

Now you may or may not need to use a shim upon putting a new starter on. Mine says you don't, but if yours says nothing about it, it's best you put it back. Now this is not the easiest starter change in the world. The bolts are hard to get to. You will be cussin and hollerin (well, at least I would be :lol:

) Have fun and good luck. I'm sure Brando will be here with some AllData information to clear up some of mine.

88delta88 · Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:51 am

87delta, you have to remove the exhaust manifold to get to the starter. It is completely in the way. Once you undo the 10 or so bolts, its a very easy replacement.

87Delta · Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:52 am

88delta88 wrote:

87delta, you have to remove the exhaust manifold to get to the starter. It is completely in the way. Once you undo the 10 or so bolts, its a very easy replacement.

Thwa?... Shitty. I was told you could do it without.. Seems reasonable so I can get both hands under there, it's a hefty starter!

88delta88 · Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:17 am

it doesnt take long to remove the manifold, but I couldnt see a way to do it without taking that off! There is one bolt that is TOUGH to get at, but its doable. I think I had a lot harder of a time with mine, because I couldnt jack the front up when working on it, and I've lowered the suspension on mine ;-)

87Delta · Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:24 am

88delta88 wrote:

it doesnt take long to remove the manifold, but I couldnt see a way to do it without taking that off! There is one bolt that is TOUGH to get at, but its doable. I think I had a lot harder of a time with mine, because I couldnt jack the front up when working on it, and I've lowered the suspension on mine ;-)

Don't worry... we have an acetylene torch for hard to remove bolts. :wink:

87Delta · Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 1:31 pm

88Delta88, you must be really skinny to fit underneath the car to get that plastic flywheel shield and second bolt off without jacking the car up! I was having a tough time with it and the car was jacked up 1ft. :shock:

Considering it's an easy task, only needed help from my dad to help hold the starter in place while I put the bolts back on.

The car starts like a champ now! I never realized how worn the old starter was untill I got a new one. Suckers fast to turn over! Plus... no more hot start problems! I'm good to go on trips now thank god!

BTW thank god I noticed while I was underneath the car that my front swaybar bolt was very, very loose! :shock:

88delta88 · Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 12:35 am

Interesting what you find when you work on one problem... I had loose sway bar components also. Did you have a good swap? :-)

I know mine was fun, and yes, it was a contorsionist act to do the swap without a jack... Now that I think about it, I should have used the spare tire jack... Hindsight... ;-)

87Delta · Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 9:22 am

88delta88 wrote:

Did you have a good swap?

Well, I'm, not the smallest 17 year old out there, but managed. I know the other guys at dads shop learned a whole new cussword vocabulary. And I leaned there was no exhaust manifold gasket installed and was leaking a little bit :shock:

Tightened everything while I was down there, so I'm good to go. Next is brakes, a new CV boot, and then catalytic converter #-o

s0ad · **Joined:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:35 pm **Posts:** 8

Okay, so everything went smoothly. Total job time was about 1 1/2-2 hours. i got the front end up on jack stands so i would have plenty of room underneath to work, and i did. the 2 bolts were pretty easy to take out. the only problem i had was loosening the bolts for the fly wheel shield. that was basically the only trouble i ran in to. luckily, i didn't have to use a shim with the new starter. that probably would have been more of a pain.

Brando · Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 6:12 pm

87Delta wrote:

And I leaned there was no exhaust manifold gasket installed and was leaking a little bit :shock:

I also noticed this....mine didn't have one either. I also had to disconnect the wires to the starter in order to remove the engine....well, the solenoid wire was being a bitch, the nut didn't want to budge (threads were stripped)...so I had to use a dremel and cutting wheel. Need to replace mine anyways... :lol:

TOC Admin
Brando

87Delta · Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 6:47 pm

Brando wrote:

87Delta wrote:

And I leaned there was no exhaust manifold gasket installed and was leaking a little bit :shock:

I also noticed this....mine didn't have one either. I also had to disconnect the wires to the starter in order to remove the engine....well, the solenoid wire was being a bitch, the nut didn't want to budge (threads were stripped)...so I had to use a dremel and cutting wheel. Need to replace mine anyways... :lol: