What a brutal job! Am still recovering from doing this repair. Clearly, I would never survive as a mechanic! But, thanks to your directions, I was able to do it.

I cleaned things as I went. The truly hardest part was putting the starter back in. The lower left bolt is a bugger. And it was not from a lack of tools. I have a fairly extensive collection of tools but I found I didn’t have a 7mm socket! I picked up a deep and a regular 7mm socket, a 10” 1/4 drive extension, and a fairly long standard screwdriver—it also fits the hose clamps. I placed the starter at least 4-5 times but was worrying about cross threading that left bolt. With the starter out I dry fitted the bolts in both holes just to determine I had no cross threading issues. It takes awhile to determine the optimal position to place the extensions. I duct taped the extensions to ensure things would not get lost inside. Ultimately, my best tool was a seriously bright flashlight! Seeing what you’re doing is important. Your eBay supplier: $109 plus shipping and tax. My local dealer wants $2200 for this job. My brother in law offered me a deal at $650. Thanks for the guidance!

 

@Devil Boy great writeup. I replaced mine today without much issue. I hadnt been in the engine in 2-3 years so did some cleaning while I was there. Took about 4 hrs with a stop for lunch. As @Edgy01 said, the biggest pain was getting that bottom bolt in - without cross threading it. And as @Wayne Smith said, that hack to tape the universal is pure genius. I actually didnt realize what it was referring to when I first read. Then after the universal flopped around aimlessly for 30 seconds I realized what he was talking about. Little bit of tape and you can feed the extension right to the bolt.

 

Ps - what is the vacuum tube and baffle in the rear plenum for?

 

Hey all! I'm having slow starts in my '08 C4S with 65k miles. I'm going to do the starter. In post #52 IXLR8 says he rebuilt his starter and included a link to directions. The link doesn't work. Does anyone have info to share on rebuilding these starters?
Thanks.
Scott

 

Good to know. I'll get the link fixed later today.

I just tried the link and it worked for me. Here is the link again and PM me if it doesn't work...
Porsche 997 Starter

 

Awesome! Thank you.

 

IXLR8,

I just reviewed your photos and all of the associated information. I'm impressed!!! Thank you for sharing. I'm now seriously considering taking mine apart and rebuilding it myself. Did you replace the bearings at either end?

Thanks.

Scott

 

The ends of the armature run in bushings and for the amount of use a starter gets, they were fine in my friend's 997. It had about 100,000 miles on it.

If the insides of your starter looks like the one I rebuilt, use a water based degreaser on the armature and the insides of the motor housing to get rid of all the grease and carbon dust. The planetary gear set should get some grease after you clean that up.

 

This has been by far the best example of how to replace the starter on a 997.1, so many videos or guides I found were based off of the 996 which were similar but not quite the same. None of those videos or guides had recommended to remove the tuning pipe in order to get better access to the starter. Thank you so much for posting this!!!!