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Old 04-17-2007, 08:06 PM   #1
Sprint45
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Replace starter without removing exhaust

Amigo-2k and all,

Came across this today thanks to my trusty Isuzu mechanic. 2 months ago I had my starter replaced on my 1998 trooper at the local dealer. I would have done it myself but timew and the rusty exhaust made me go there. Anyway 2 months later and i started to die again . I crawled underneath thinking"bolts are free this time cause they were done 2 months ago". Guess what. The bolts are still rusted in place . So how'd he get the old one out withoput moving the exhaust. I stopped by and asked if he would give me the secret and save me from the Labor Costs again. Took his secret, went home and guess what...2 hours and the change out was complete and I never had to touch the exhaust.

The secret.... Remove the 4, 14mm engine mount bolts, 2 on each side just below the exhaust manifold. Easliy sccessable but putting them back can be a challenge, just be patient. Anyways, once removed jack up the car the actually jack up the engine. with the engine lifted about 1" or so it will give you enough room to remove the starter out the rear of the truck with alittle wiggleing to line it up through the opening. I actually slid out the old and slid in the new one under @ 3minutes total after lifting the engine.

Hope this helps all you other 1998 and above 4x4,Trooper owners.

Mike
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Old 04-18-2007, 11:35 AM   #2
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Re: Replace starter without removing exhaust

Thanks! I'll add this to the FAQ's!
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Old 04-14-2008, 10:00 AM   #3
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Re: Replace starter without removing exhaust

What motor did your 98 have? and was it a 4X4. I have a 2000 3.5 with the same ruster exhaust and bad starter....any help would be appreciated...
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Old 06-24-2008, 05:33 PM   #4
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Re: Replace starter without removing exhaust

Quote:
Originally Posted by snxfire
What motor did your 98 have? and was it a 4X4. I have a 2000 3.5 with the same ruster exhaust and bad starter....any help would be appreciated...
The 98 is a 3.5 also so it should be the same...4 14cm bolts in the motor mounts...
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Old 04-17-2010, 10:07 PM   #5
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Re: Replace starter without removing exhaust

I'm having trouble replacing this damn thing! someone please tell me which bolts are the correct ones to remove. Are the 4 bolts holding up a metal plate that runs across the bottom of the engine, or did I remove the wrong thing? A little help is needed (pics would be awesome) please someone give me some advice.
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Old 05-20-2010, 04:46 PM   #6
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Re: Replace starter without removing exhaust

Thanks so much to Sprint45 for sharing this tip!! I have a 98 Trooper with 4x4 and auto tranny, and there was absolutely no other way to get the starter out without detaching the exhaust. I had read reports on other sites that it was possible to get the starter out by just rotating it properly and dropping down, or by working it toward the front, but on my particular vehicle I can guarantee that is not true. I fiddled with the dang thing for hours and there was absolutely no way the starter was going to come out without either detaching the exhaust or raising the engine as described here. I was about to start removing the exhaust when I found this trick. Once I found it, I was able to get the starter out fairly quickly. Raising the engine creates JUST ENOUGH space to drop the starter out at an angle down and toward the back of the truck. You do still need to rotate it into the right orientation to get it out.

A few more tips:

- The 4 engine mount bolts mentioned here are accessed from above, inside the engine compartment. Stand to the side of the vehicle near a front tire, and look down into the engine compartment between the side of the engine and the side of the engine compartment. You should see 2 14mm bolts on each side. It is not a big space, so it's helpful to have a very long extension to reach down in there.

- Once the bolts were removed, I could not find a good solid place on the engine that I could put a jack on. I ended up taking a chance and jacking on the oil pan with a board in between the jack and the pan and it did the job without damaging the pan. I was afraid to jack on the pan, but I couldn't find another good spot.

- Once I had the old starter out, I had a hard time getting the new starter into position. The new one was about 1/8 in longer than the original, and I was starting to think that it wouldn't fit. As a sanity check, I tried to fit the original starter back into place and even it was difficult. There just isn't much extra room. I eventually got the new one into place despite the size difference. Don't give up.

- To re-attach the engine mounts, you have to re-align the holes on the engine mount with the holes on the frame. They shift out of position when you lift the engine. I was able to use a pry bar underneath between the frame cross member and the bottom of the engine to slide the engine forward enough to realign the mounting holes. This was pretty easy. TO get the bolts back in, I taped them into the socket and used the long extension to reach them down into place.

All in all this was a a royal pain in the butt, the most difficult starter replacement that I've ever done. But if I had all this info before getting started, it could have saved me a lot of time and frustration. I hope this info helps someone else.

diddy0071, I hope I answered your question. Sounds like you were looking at the wrong bolts. It took me a while to figure out where they were also. If you need further help, feel free to contact me.
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Old 06-14-2012, 08:42 PM   #7
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Re: Replace starter without removing exhaust -1993 Trooper

Thanks to sprint45 for "lift engine" and chumley2 for "where the bolts are located."

Here are more details on changing the starter on a 93 Trooper. I am 65 years old and I'm fussy about working safe and getting the repair right.

Get some clean wraparound safety glasses (even if you wear regular glasses) because this job will shower you with exhaust pipe rust flakes.

Get the car safe and level on concrete and have plenty of blocks. I tried doing this on a slanted dirt surface (as my son was in a hurry) and this car and this job will fall if you don't have a first class safe work space.

To unbolt the 4 motor mount bolts explained above, I had to go in through the wheel wells. Jack and support car so you can leave the left tire off and undo the two 14mm wrench size motor mount bolts. The motor mount bolts are 10mm diameter x 1.25 mm pitch. Note NAPA sells 1.5 mm pitch bolts that will not work. These two bolt pitches look alike and you need a metric thread pitch gage to tell the difference.

If you have a die hook or taper punch, get it ready for lining up the motor mount piece with the threaded frame piece when you re-install the motor mount bolts. I tried putting in two long guide bolts but they interfered with lifting the engine.

Under the car, using a 10mm flex socket remove 2 hex bolts and remove a 6" square shield. When the shield is off, you can access the inner starter hex bolt.

Jacking the engine. My floor jack leaks slowly so I made a yellow chalk mark in the firewall so I could tell when the engine had settled down. Another yellow mark under the car was easy to look at while doing starter wrestling.

Under the car, squirt WD-40 on the two clamp bolts that hold two pieces of curved metal that form a heat shield over the left exhaust pipe. Using a 10 mm flex socket loosen the two clamp bolts and slide off the two pieces of metal that form the heat shield. Leave the clamp straps on the pipe or note the orientation of the clamp bolt heads.

The dimensions of the outer starter mounting bolt is 10 mm diameter x 1.5mm pitch x 50mm length. The inner starter mounting bolt is 75mm length. The starter power cable lug is 13mm wrench size and 8 mm thread diameter.

So basically I spent 2 amateur mechanic days by trying to work on a tilted dirt surface, and 1 amateur mechanic day before I removed the heat shield.

On sliding the starter motor out I did this. Lower motor pinion nose first, snake it around the bell housing, then back it out with the solenoid down.

With the heat shield off, engine lifted 1", left wheel off and safety glasses on I laughed at how easy it might have been - except that amateur auto mechanic projects always go slow.
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Old 03-20-2014, 07:48 PM   #8
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Re: Replace starter without removing exhaust

I am a general automotive novice with a can-do attitude (or I'm just too cheap to take my car to the mechanic). I found this thread extremely helpful, and as I worked I snapped some photos to add.

My vehicle is a 98 Trooper 3.5L

Here are a few more tips from my experience:
(1) Disconnect the positive and negative power lines connecting to the starter before doing anything else. I made the mistake of leaving them connected until after the starter was unmounted from the engine, and it made it a lot harder for me.

(2) Unscrew the heat shielding on the exhaust close to the starter to give yourself a few more centimeters.

(3) Definitely use a magnet alongside the extension when removing the engine mounting bolts. (I'm missing one in the engine compartment somewhere)

(4) once your engine mounts are out, I suggest putting some sort of post through the holes to try to keep them aligned as you raise the engine, either long skinny bolts, or a long thin pieces of steel. Trying to get those mounting bolts back in may have been the most frustrating part of this operation.

Here are my pictures:
Location of drivers side mounting bolts


Location of passenger side mounting bolts


Lifted engine
(Note, before lift, my oil pan sits 10.25'' off the ground. I lifted it about 3.75'', to 14'' off the ground) I lifted it about 12, and then tried to remove the starter, lifting incrementally, little by little until I could just squeeze the starter through the opening.
I just used a 4x4 type piece of wood across my oil pan and jacked against that. It didn't seem to bother the oil pan.



Location of the starter (View is from underneath the drivers seat, looking toward the front of the car)


Removing the starter through the opening


Hope these help someone else.
FYI, this project took me roughly 3.5 hours total from start to finish.
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Old 12-20-2014, 09:01 AM   #9
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Re: Replace starter without removing exhaust

2014 Update:
Just did a 1998 Trooper starter replacement. Shop quoted $600! Knew it was going to be a PITA but the starter was less then $100 on Amazon so I opted for the DIY route. Even though my exhaust bolts didn't look too bad I opted for the raise your engine route. I followed the directions for this as shown above. Here are my hints:

It is a 2 hour job that takes 4+ for the simple yet so annoyingly difficult steps (yes, you will understand when you do them

1. When removing the engine mounts I put in long screw drivers into the open holes to realign them when lowering the engine to reattach. I used one on each side. If you can do 4 it will help. When I reattached the ones with the screwdrivers in them worked great. The other two took HOURS of messing to get them to align. More on that below.

2. The out board bolt to the starter is hidden pretty good. I didn't think it could possibly be in there, but just feel for it with an extension and you will get it.

3. I did not remove the heat shield to the exhaust due to rust. This is the tube shaped one that wraps around the exhaust. It would have been nice to have those few cm or even mm! But you can do it.

4. I found the bolt for the connector from starter to battery wire that is covered by a rubber boot to be hard to remove. Be ready to be frustrated with this one.

5. Plan on a good hour to get the right angle to get the starter out. Take your time, don't get frustrated (but you will) and know it WILL come out! Try and remember the angle and orientation that finally worked. This will help with the next step.

6. Plan on another hour to get the right angle to get the starter back in!

7. Installation of the starter bolts and wires was fairly straight forward.

8. Reattachment of engine mounts was hard to get aligned. The angle needed to get the bolts to thread was tricky. I used wobble extensions (google it) and they helped. I wished I had used something to align all four bolt holes when I jacked up the engine. But I'm not positive that would have helped. I was finally able to align them by loosening the other bolts and trying different heights of jacking up the engine. The last one that I had trouble with was the rear one on the driver side. I went through the wheel well for that one to get a better angle. Just be ready for extra time on this step.

Hope this helps! Good luck! And have some patience on this fix!
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Old 11-05-2015, 09:17 PM   #10
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Re: Replace starter without removing exhaust

I just replaced starter on my 2001 trooper without removing exhaust OR loosening engine mounts. It is unmodified factory condition. After loosening I was able to rotate starter, remove solenoid then by drawings to down back end first and solenoid housing in about 7:00 position near the exhaust it rotated right out. Did reverse with new starter. As precaution to get a little more clearance I removed the clutch slave shield but it probably was not absolutely necessary. Much cleaner and faster than the other posted procedures. I googled to this site before starting. Hope this helps guys/gals in the future.
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