96 Rodeo Starter - What a nightmare !

Same thing with the 3.2's in the Troopers...I thought I might do it myself till I couldn't find the starter and dad said the mechanic that replaced theirs had to pull the exhaust manifold...wasn't a pretty bill! :-) Does everyone's 3.2v6 seem to drag a while before it catches and starts? It's that way on our 94 and my parents 93...

Wesley

I just changed out the starter on my 89 Trooper II. It took me three days to get it out.......2.5 thinking about it and .5 days actually removing it. After I learned a couple tricks, installing took only about 20 minutes. I felt kind of foolish afterword.

Never had to change one out on a 96 Rodeo, sounded ugly to say the least.

Dale J.

the worst place for a starter that I've ever seen is on a Toyota Tundra.... the starter is *UNDER* the intake manifold in the valley.... I can't imagine the R&R on that beast.

-Bret

I once owned a 69 Jag XKE Coupe. To change the front U-joint (they last about 50 K) you have to pull the engine or the rear end. Take your pick. Naturally they come with no grease fitting because you couldn't get to them. I put a new one *with* a zerk and cut a hole in the floor for a grease gun.

Frank

Good thing as Last weekend I had to change the water pump and the book recommends removing the starter and place a tool to prevent the engine from turning over while you remove the front pulley.

Well all started out well until I started to remove the bolt from the exhaust manifold and the bolt snapped. Turns out that the starter was going bad anyway and I would have had to remove the pipe anyway.

I tried to remove the Manifold but could not remove the 3 bottom bolts to the manifold. I was able to remove the bolts to the heat shield and the top

3 bolts. Wish I knew what special tools they use as I have all kinds of tools and nothing seemed to work.

Turns out I had to drill out the broken bolt while the manifold was attached. I have rebuilt engines with less trouble than what I went through. I will continue to do my own work as it did save me a ton of money But I think I aged a couple of years doing it.

At least it is running now better than before.

Gary

To be perfectly honest, I spent 3 hours thinking and drinking about it. I then tried to find the correct conformation to extract the starter, but to no avail.

A bit of searching dejanews (oops, I mean google groups) that night revealed the following options: 1. Let someone else do it for ~$400 2. Unbolt or remove driver's side exhaust 3. Fiddle with it hours. Eventually it will fall out 4. Disassemble and remove

I quickly eliminated (2), my pride eclipsed (1), I tried (3), and a few scotches later landed me in (4). There was a desparate moment when I dropped the roller bearings from the new starter on the floor and could not find one for a while. I also nearly turned blue before I finally turn the ignition key.

I still cannot believe anyone would design a car this way.

Paul

In the valley? How the fsck did anyone come up with that for placement? I think it might be simpler to buy a new car.

My other car is an Audi A6. To change the thermostat, you have to disassemble the front of the car and the engine to replace it. So, you end up replacing the water pump, timing chain, tensioners, cam and crack seals whilst the front end is in pieces.

$15 thermostat = $750 repair bill. Go figure.

Paul

Great. Something else to look forward to. Could you not have just left the car in reverse and crack the nut with a breaker bar?

Manifold are a big pain. Did you soak the studs with Liquid Wrench(Tm) the night before?

Paul

That's exactly what I had done. The Starter turned out to be going bad anyway.

Gary

Yeah, the shop that put the starter on our 94 trooper said they ended up cutting the bolts off to get the exhaust manifold loose...

Wesley