Following a period where the starter has been lazy, I have been trying to avoid this abominable job of removing the starter as I knew what a dog it was, having done it before on a series one BX16V.
Below you'll find a series of pics showing the varying stages of the job.
I'll post them as they become available in the hope that it may save others the problems usually found when the first one is done.
Firstly, jack up the car and put axle stands under it; much easier standing to work on a car than bending and believe me, you can spend some time bending on this one.
Secondly, disconnect the battery; most important.
Thirdly, be sure yu have a decent set of metric sockets and allen keys as well as a set of allen key sockets, all of the above with 3/8" drive due to the restricted spaces you'll be working in.
Fourthly, drain the coolant into a container.
Disconnect the accelerator cable at the quadrant and lay it back across the tappet cover out of harms way.
Disconnect the hose at the filler funnel, fuel hose to the fuel rail, as well as just about every coolant and breather hose that there is there.
Disconnect the AFM by unclipping the air filter element and laying it up towards the passengers side mudguard.
Remove the intake plenum; this requires a 6mm allen socket as well as 2 nuts (11mm I think?) When you try to remove it from the head, you'll find that on the drivers side (LHS looking from the radiator) there's a black steel lifting bracket held by 2 allen screws again 6mm but you will see that access is only there for the top one. Remove it and leave the other. With a ball pein hammer, tap the lifting bracket towards the front of the car. It will pivot on the remaining allen headed bolt. Remove the fuel rail along with the injectors; these are hed in place by 2 X 10mm bolts with earth wires attached. Remember to refit the earth leads. After removing the plugs, by wriggling the rail and the injectors, you should work the injectors free of the head as well as the fuel rail as they are fitted with "O" rings that often get tight at both ends.
theThe manifold (or plenum) will then lift off exposing the P/R, oil filter assembly and F/D as well as a few sensors, the alternator and of course the starter motor. Remove the starter motor by removing 3 allen key headed bolts (as shown in the pics) these take an 8mm allen headed socket. I doubt that an ordinary allen key will shift these as they are tight. I also found that if I also used an 8mm open ended spanner on the socket once I had loosened them up a bit, it was easier than trying to use a rathet or than trying to do it by hand. At the rear of the starter motor, there are 2 bolts 10mm socket and a 3" extension needed to shift those. At that stage, disconnect the wire from the battery and alternator which are connected to each other as well as the energising wire to the solenoid.
I'd suggest replacing as much of the wiring as is humanly possible whilst this is exposed as on my car with low mileage, I have noticed some pretty serious degradation of the wires in particular the one that runs from the starter to the alternator.
The brackets at the rear are adjustable and this I would imagine would or could be so that the starter gear will mesh square on the ring gear.
Next I'll take the starter to pieces and show the pics on how to diamantle recondition and reassemble it.
But for now, here's the pics up to this point.
Any questions or suggestions, feel free to PM me.
Alan S
Below you'll find a series of pics showing the varying stages of the job.
I'll post them as they become available in the hope that it may save others the problems usually found when the first one is done.
Firstly, jack up the car and put axle stands under it; much easier standing to work on a car than bending and believe me, you can spend some time bending on this one.
Secondly, disconnect the battery; most important.
Thirdly, be sure yu have a decent set of metric sockets and allen keys as well as a set of allen key sockets, all of the above with 3/8" drive due to the restricted spaces you'll be working in.
Fourthly, drain the coolant into a container.
Disconnect the accelerator cable at the quadrant and lay it back across the tappet cover out of harms way.
Disconnect the hose at the filler funnel, fuel hose to the fuel rail, as well as just about every coolant and breather hose that there is there.
Disconnect the AFM by unclipping the air filter element and laying it up towards the passengers side mudguard.
Remove the intake plenum; this requires a 6mm allen socket as well as 2 nuts (11mm I think?) When you try to remove it from the head, you'll find that on the drivers side (LHS looking from the radiator) there's a black steel lifting bracket held by 2 allen screws again 6mm but you will see that access is only there for the top one. Remove it and leave the other. With a ball pein hammer, tap the lifting bracket towards the front of the car. It will pivot on the remaining allen headed bolt. Remove the fuel rail along with the injectors; these are hed in place by 2 X 10mm bolts with earth wires attached. Remember to refit the earth leads. After removing the plugs, by wriggling the rail and the injectors, you should work the injectors free of the head as well as the fuel rail as they are fitted with "O" rings that often get tight at both ends.
theThe manifold (or plenum) will then lift off exposing the P/R, oil filter assembly and F/D as well as a few sensors, the alternator and of course the starter motor. Remove the starter motor by removing 3 allen key headed bolts (as shown in the pics) these take an 8mm allen headed socket. I doubt that an ordinary allen key will shift these as they are tight. I also found that if I also used an 8mm open ended spanner on the socket once I had loosened them up a bit, it was easier than trying to use a rathet or than trying to do it by hand. At the rear of the starter motor, there are 2 bolts 10mm socket and a 3" extension needed to shift those. At that stage, disconnect the wire from the battery and alternator which are connected to each other as well as the energising wire to the solenoid.
I'd suggest replacing as much of the wiring as is humanly possible whilst this is exposed as on my car with low mileage, I have noticed some pretty serious degradation of the wires in particular the one that runs from the starter to the alternator.
The brackets at the rear are adjustable and this I would imagine would or could be so that the starter gear will mesh square on the ring gear.
Next I'll take the starter to pieces and show the pics on how to diamantle recondition and reassemble it.
But for now, here's the pics up to this point.
Any questions or suggestions, feel free to PM me.
Alan S