For review, here's the rusty, rat-peed starter of old. Be glad you cannot see the large number of rat poops sitting on top of the transmission
The bottom nut came off easily, but the top bolt wasn't so easy. It is a hex bolt, which threw me (why two different types of bolt/nut combos on a single part?), but fortunately I have these, which made getting that second bolt off easy:
Here's the old and new starter together. Turns out the old starter wasn't OE; it was a Bosch remanufactured starter, done sometime in the 90's. New starter is an "Ultima" (O'Reilly's/Kragen house brand) with a lifetime guarantee; remanufactured in China.
Putting the new one back in was pretty easy. I had to turn the starter a bit to get it slot in. Fit perfectly; well almost. The post for the positive connector (the bronze post at the top of the new starter) was just slightly smaller than the Bosch, which made getting the connectors on difficult. The nut isn't quite flush with the bolt, which I would have preferred; however, more than half the threads are on, and it seemed pretty solid. Since that nut isn't really carrying any weight, it should be OK. A few sweaty moments, though, figuring out if it was going to work.
Fired right up ~ starter now clean and functional. Possibly more dependable too.
I did come across a question. This is a pic of the tail end of the shifter linkage/line. The part between the end and the circle/guide was covered in old, dried grease. I cleaned it off, and put new grease on, but it seems like there ought to be a boot or something covering that section... is that the case? Or is this section meant to be open as shown here?
Coming up next week ~ Bercilak hacks the cooling pipes with a single whack of his axe!
Mike
/edit/ I couldn't figure out what that copper piece attached to the new starter was for, so I set it aside. Some reading about another starter question, and I figured it out ~ it's the bushing for the starter. So I ask, Oh Colin-San: Must I go back in and swap the bushing?
ML
