Another starter removal thread - need help, but not with what you think!

[SCWDP911]

OK, I have been dreading this day of replacing my starter. I have read all the trheads I could find and as much as I love my car, I was not looking forward to "hugging" the tranny in order to get the starter off and back on. But, time has come that this had to be done and I barely have time to try to do it myself let alone drive it somewhere to be done, so in between a LOT of things today I jacked the car up, got it on stands, put out my tools and creeper and hugged my tranny. Lo and behold, the infamous top nut came right off in less than a minute I believe. At that point, I was thinking, "cool! this is not going to be bad at all and I should be able to get it done in less than an hour!"... NOT!!!

I cannot get the stinking lower nut to break free at all. I have soaked it in PB Blaster, tried my 10mm hex socket, tried a small piece of 10mm hex key cut off and tried to turn that with a 10mm wrench... nada. I even got desperate and tried to get some vise-grips on it to break it free. Nope!

I have it soaking again in PB Blaster and am going to put the heat to it. Any other tyips or suggestions. Highly frustrating that the "easy" one turned out to be the hard one.

[Zeke]

The heat really is your next move. I have found that heat allows the PB to penetrate better.

[SCWDP911]

Yeah, I have seen that too. Hope it works this time. That booger is a real booger.

[john walker's workshop]

wack it sideways a few times with a big hammer. don't distort the allen hole in the process. that often loosens them up.

[SCWDP911]

Thanks John. I will apply some heat and whack it sideways.

[SCWDP911]

Success! but...

OK< next question:

Got old starter off, and comparing it to rebuilt starter, identical except for ONE thing (of course). The yellow wire and the other small wire that attach to spade terminals. On my original, the yellow wire goes to the terminal on top of starter (and terminal is inline with the axles if you will or horizontal. The smaller wire attached to a spade terminal on the bottom side of my original and teh terminal orientation is vertical compared the other. On my rebuilt starter, these two terminals are right next to each other, but are still perpendicular to one another. Both spade terminals are same size unfortunately. I would guess that I should put the wires back on terminal with the same orientation of my original, but it has been one of those days and I would like to know for sure if possible. Bentley has nothing on this unfortunately.

[john walker's workshop]

does one terminal have 50 on it? that's the big yellow wire. 50/50 chance. swap them if the key doesn't work the starter.

[SCWDP911]

Been a long day and I did not think to check the terminals for numbers - duh...

yeah I guess I was overanalyzing, I just did not want to do any damage by hooking up wrong and putting juice to her. Sounds like I am good to try it and swap. John, in the Nuclear Naval Power School, we used to call this method 50/50/90.

[newms]

If you are set up to bench test the starter you can confirm which connector is correct. Negative to the body of the starter, positve to the main hot post and then touch a second positive lead to each spade until it spins. Or, trial and error on the car. I will guess it's the spade that is the most to the driver's side. At least the new starter is a spade connector and not a screw type which requires changing the electric connector on the wire! Good luck.

[SCWDP911]

Crap! OK, put my first guess in place, hooked battery up and then bump checked. Starter was moving. I dropped the car off the stands and cranked it and no start! What have I done. All I did was disconnect battery, remove wires from starter, remove starter, install rebuilt starter, reterminate, and check. Car will crank no problem, but no light off. May be a long night.