Starter motor removal - what the flip!?

[orangebooboobearcrew]

Hi,

Is this right or am I being 'special'?

Trying to remove the starter motor as making a funny noise which I suspect is the bush so gonna replace that and see how we go.

As I understand it there are 2 bolts holding the starter to the clutch housing - one at about 7 o'clock and one at 1 o'clock.

The one at 7 o'clock came off easy with a 17mm ring spanner - happy days However the one is a right pig to get at so ended up taking the wheel off and moving all the pipes etc out of the way but still couldn't get 17mm spanner on it. Tried a 19mm and was better but not a good grip or enough to be able to budge it.

So, had to do a bit of thinking and felt nut with my hand and felt really smooth but with a wedge on the bottom - What the blithering heck

Confused so got inspection lamp and a mirror so could see it properly and the nut is 'D' shaped so totally rounded other the 1 flat side. This has not been rounded off by ill fitting spanners; it is the type of nut - the likes of which I have never seen before...

Is this normal and the correct nut / bolt for this hole? Also, how the f&*k do you get that off?....the flat side is at the bottom of the hole so can't get spanner on it as fouls on the casing...


Soz if I'm being a div but been trying for 3 hours to get one nut / bolt off and it's doing my head in

[gsmoke]

You've found the end of the bolt, not the nut.
The nut is on the other end in the engine bay.

[72BUG]

Yup. That one got me too. Yo need to get at the other end inside the engine bay. Probably need to remove the air filter housing to get at it.

[kevtherev]

Hi, I'm being a div

Ah good old fashioned blokism... "I don't need the haynes"
17mm the same

[orangebooboobearcrew]

What a spanner (me not the 17mm)!!!

That would explain it...obvious to all but the 'hard of thinking' like me...

Thanks a lot guys - most appreciated

For reference, I did look at the Haynes but there didn't seem to be any reference to where the nuts were - it just said 'remove the 2 nuts'

Thanks again. Save me wasting another 3 hours sat in the cold

[sarran1955]

Hello,

Yes it's called the 'D' bolt.

That's D for dogged determination if your trying to get it off from the gearbox side

Seriously, do clean this bolt well and make sure the nut spins easily, it will make re-fitting so much easier,

Cordialement,

[ermie571]

should have tried the wiki....its all there....in glorious technicolur...including the odd shaped bolt

https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Al ... rter_motor" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Em
xx

[orangebooboobearcrew]

So it is....

Sorry, I should have looked, This could have saved me some embarrassment

Article looks great - I'll see how I get on...

Chris

[ermie571]

Chris,

we went through a spate of starter motor trouble on my old 2 ltr Aircooled. Its not a difficult job once you have done it the first time....

park the van on the kerb....bit more room underneath to extract the motor. Managed to get away without jacking.....depends on whether u are wayne sleep or churchill I guess!!

Em
xx

[orangebooboobearcrew]

Thanks Em - looking forward (?) to having a good go at this tomorrow. Will let you know how I get on...

Unfortunately need to jack as more Pavarotti than Angelotti these day

[orangebooboobearcrew]

Hokey Dokey - all is fine and dandy!!!

Tight for time yesterday but managed to get starter off in 5 minutes once that I knew what was doing (that included removing the airbox from in the engine bay) so well happy with that. What a difference when you know what you are doing...

Starter and solenoid look in pretty top condition and the terminals were all clear as well with no corrosion. Took the opportunity to clean these up with some sand paper then vaseline to protect. The starter was given a quick run over with a wire brush and some paraffin to get the crud off as were the terminals.

Borrowed an M12 tap from father in law yesterday for removing the old bush and got straight out and at this morning. Never used one of these before but got it started really easy and then managed to get a small pair of grips on the tap and took my time turning quarter of a turn at a time until eventually after about 5 - 10 mins it started to draw out the old bush. Came out a treat

Looked in pretty good nick and wasn't broken / still intact and didn't look to have thinned to much. However when I compared it to the new bush it was couple of mm shorter and could see it had broken at one end as edges were jagged.

Offering the new bush up (after soaking in oil), held it square with my hand the used the nut and bolt trick mentioned on the WIKI and very very gently tapped it home, real careful at the start until could feel it going in. Went home a treat - top trick / tip this one; I would never have thought of that...

Took 5 mins to get the starter and all ancillaries back in.

Just fired her up - can't believe the difference...like a singer sewing machine now and starts on first turn of the key

Thanks to everyone for their help and for bearing with my silly questions. That was a really satisfying little job that one...

Chris