Ok. Been a mechanic for 12 years now. Fixed helicopters tanks fixed wing lots of cars and so on. But I've never changed a starter. I have the 4.0. How much of a pain is it??

 

Its not hard at all. The only hard part if I remember correctly was getting the tranny cooling lines to stay out of the way.

 

If I'm not mistaken it's just two bolts. Two wires and that's it. Right??

 

Did mine on Tuesday. Two bolts and two wires. I think one of the wires is an 8mm, the other is a 12 or 13. The bolts are 14/15 or so. Took about an hour, but I wasn't in any hurry. Pretty cheap, too. $69 for a reman from Autozone. ($32 core)

 

If you dont mind me asking what is actually wrong with the alt? Is it just bad contacts if so its like 5 bucks for a rebuild kit.

 

It takes 10 minutes to replace the starter.

 

Yep and it takes 15 to replace the contacts and it cost about 100 times less.

 

He's doing a starter, not an alternator.

My starter was the original unit from 1997 the bearings were shot and the bendix unit only returned some of the time. For $70, why rebuild it yourself?

 

My starter was fine it was the contact points that wore down. So i took it apart and replaced them for 5 bucks.

 

If you're a mechanic, then you'll probably realize that if you are going to change the starter, you'r probably going to want to change the terminal heads also.

If you change those first, instead of as a part of the whole project, you mimght fix the problem. I did my starter/battery/terminal head combo last week, with the terminal heads done last.
When I cut tho OEM ones off, to replace them with the AutoZone 2$ specials, I found a whole bunch of salt in the wires when I stripped them back. It went about 2 inches in. Once I cut that off, cleaned everything up, and bolted it back together, it fired right up.

In essence, I'm saying start with the easy, cheap stuff first, since you're probably going to do them anyway, and it might ifx the whole issue.

Good-luck. Have fun.

Oh, and as far as replacing the starter,
1.) It's dirty as heck, spend 10 minutes degreasing it and the nuts come off easier witrhout your hands slipping all over.
2.) You need (makes it easier) a stubby ratchet, and some (about 12-16 inches) of extensions, so when you go after the nuts on the sylenoid, you don't have to try to get your hands up in the little hole (area). Good- luck. Again.

 

Thanx to all that replied to my topic. It literally only took about an hour and it was dirty. Not just oh a little grease/dirt. All grease and dirt is more like it. O rielys had a reman for 69 with a life time warranty Also rebuilt all contacts and for an ultima dry cell battery. Now all I do is think about it starting and it's firing up. Next stop. Exhaust. Everyone. Check out my build page. Green lantern. See you down the trail