James Earl
05-26-2005, 04:39 PM
Starter Removal Made Easy.
Time to replace the starter on your Mkiii. Here is the least painful way and believe me I have done it the painful way before.
Jack the car up as high as you can safely get it. Be sure it is stable. I like to get in and play race car driver to test this but you may have a better way. Disconnect the battery.
Remove the cross bar from the body just before differential. This is used as a safety for the driveshaft.
Remove the centre bearing support from the body of the car. At this point the drive shaft should lower. Sliding the driveshaft back it should slide out from the rear of the transmission. You can push it off to the side of the car out of the way. Do not remove it from the differential, as that is not required.
Place a jack under the transmission to take some of the weight off it. Begin to remove the cross support bolts. Remove the four (4) from the body holding the support up. Lower the tail of the transmission for better access to the upper starter bolt.
Loosen the engine mounts from the bottom of the car. Back them out quite a bit but do not remove them if you don’t need to.
The starter is easy to reach from below the car. You can remove the positive power lead/cable from below the starter. At the same time disconnect the plugged wire for the starter relay.
Earlier Supras will have a starter that does not thread bolts into it and you will find a nut and bolt setup. This will make you sad because you will need a helper to remove the starter. OK, reaching in around the intake manifold you will need to place a fixed box wrench onto the bolt and have your helper hold it there while you remove the bolt from below.
From below the car you will need a 14mm deep socket and 1.5 to 2 feet of extension. Feed the socket in from the back of the transmission and have your helper guide the socket to the upper bolt. The lower starter bolt you can see from below the car.
(Older Supra’s will have a threaded housing on the starter and you can remove the bolts without a helper, as it will not have nuts. Yes it’s out newer Supras have no nuts!)
Once you have the bolts removed you can usually feed the starter out of the bottom of the car.
Done.
To put it back in, read this backwards!
Time to replace the starter on your Mkiii. Here is the least painful way and believe me I have done it the painful way before.
Jack the car up as high as you can safely get it. Be sure it is stable. I like to get in and play race car driver to test this but you may have a better way. Disconnect the battery.
Remove the cross bar from the body just before differential. This is used as a safety for the driveshaft.
Remove the centre bearing support from the body of the car. At this point the drive shaft should lower. Sliding the driveshaft back it should slide out from the rear of the transmission. You can push it off to the side of the car out of the way. Do not remove it from the differential, as that is not required.
Place a jack under the transmission to take some of the weight off it. Begin to remove the cross support bolts. Remove the four (4) from the body holding the support up. Lower the tail of the transmission for better access to the upper starter bolt.
Loosen the engine mounts from the bottom of the car. Back them out quite a bit but do not remove them if you don’t need to.
The starter is easy to reach from below the car. You can remove the positive power lead/cable from below the starter. At the same time disconnect the plugged wire for the starter relay.
Earlier Supras will have a starter that does not thread bolts into it and you will find a nut and bolt setup. This will make you sad because you will need a helper to remove the starter. OK, reaching in around the intake manifold you will need to place a fixed box wrench onto the bolt and have your helper hold it there while you remove the bolt from below.
From below the car you will need a 14mm deep socket and 1.5 to 2 feet of extension. Feed the socket in from the back of the transmission and have your helper guide the socket to the upper bolt. The lower starter bolt you can see from below the car.
(Older Supra’s will have a threaded housing on the starter and you can remove the bolts without a helper, as it will not have nuts. Yes it’s out newer Supras have no nuts!)
Once you have the bolts removed you can usually feed the starter out of the bottom of the car.
Done.
To put it back in, read this backwards!