So, today I replaced my starter

[Jimb]

Man, what a job!

I had just completed a remove/reinstall of the engine and trans, so everything was nice and clean to work on. Unfortunately it wasn't until I had gotten everything back together and the car back on the road that I became aware that the starter was beginning to show signs of wear. It would sound strained once the engine was warm, so although the problem was very sporadic I figured I'm better to resolve it sooner rather than later.

Removing the bolts was quite easy, thanks to a search of this forum. I got myself a 2' extension to a 3/8" drive 13 mm socket and away I went. The starter dropped out easy peezy. The real problem was physically getting the starter out of the engine bay. What a PITA!

There was no way it would fit out the bottom because of the steering rack, and it wouldn't fit between the intake manifold and the brake booster. So, I eventually had to remove the oil pressure sending unity as well as the supercharger oil reservoir and then literally stuff the starter thru the tight space below the supercharger and then up against the rad.

I reinstalled a new starter from Autoricambi, and it went in relatively easy.

Fired her up and it's great to have that feeling of reliability, so worth the effort.
Supposed to be sunny tomorrow and all weekend.

Cheers,
Jim

[spidernut]

Congrats! The stock starter is massive and barely fits. So how do you like the room left by the gear reduction starter?

[Jimb]

Big improvement! Yes, the new starter was easy to feed back thru the spaces created for removing the old starter because it was smaller.

My old starter still has lots of life so I'll keep it just in case the next for authenticity.

Jim