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Like the rest of you I ran into the same frustration when I went to rebuild my starter. After about 15 minutes of playing around and not really making progress I decided to take another route. After i calculated correct location out came the hole saw and within 1 minutes I had dropped the starter motor with ease. This route is not for everyone, but it certainly cuts time and simplifies the removal and install. The carpet and insulation have to be removed, but can be put back in and a rubber plug used to fill the hole - piece of cake
Did this job yesterday. No need to lower tranny, only took a couple of hours, and did some leak sleuthing while in there.
The most amazing thing is how ferocious the new starter is! The car now instantly barks to life. Very satisfying job.
I was experiencing serious warm-engine starter fatigue, sometimes needing a dozen or more attempts to get the car started. Cold, the starter always worked fine.
Don't fear this job, at least on a C2. Totally worth doing.
Thanks to everyone for all the tips, made things faster and easier.
I just completed this job. It took two tries. First try, I spent hours trying to find the right combination of tools and attachments. I was able to match up the allen socket to the top nut a number of times but didn't have enough room to turn the wrench (1/4, 3/8, and 1/2). I ended up giving up and rest for a couple of days; so frustrating. Today, I gave in and lowered the engine 5 inches which game me just enough room to wrench. The key for me was to not use any wobble adjustments but instead try to fit the allen socket attachments to the top nut without the ratchet. That made it easier to find the top nut. Once the allen socket and attachments were in, I simply attached the ratchet to the attachments and loosened the nut. My main issue was that my car, a '93 C2, had a ginormous starter which left me little room to maneuver. Dropping the engine solved that. Here's what it looks like:
The new one is for a 996 and is shorter which made installation a breeze. This is by far the worst project I have taken on (bruised knuckles, sore back, crap all over my face, etc). Most of the time was used trying to troubleshoot solutions; mind you that I did a fair amount of research prior. Glad it's done and now starts like a champ!
with this set up for the upper nut, I removed my starter in minutes without lowering the tranny or anything. It's a 3/8 wrench.
exact setup i have T but after 2 hours and even lowering the engine so that the engine mount lower threads are just above the rer engine bracket, I cant do it .. where you 'cuddling' the gbox , head towards the front of the car and ratcheting with your right hand from the right side while left hand hold the socket in place? Thats what I'm trying but haven't succeeded yet!
thanks Super90 ... i can position it but with the hard extra brake lines etc.. and wires on the C4 there's no space to actually chooch
Gus I'm warming to your approach quickly :0
12-22-2014, 02:18 PM
