The dreaded top starter motor bolt.

[Bushbasher]

The wagon starter needed changing today so I went and removed the starter from the spare Fairlane. It wasn't too tedious and only took 20 minutes under the car although it was a bit tight getting my ham fists in to get the top bolt undone with my 1/2" drive ratchet + 6" extension and knuckle to clear the front of the starter. Once cracked though, it came out by hand. The positive power cable was a bit tricky with a 13mm ringy but again, once cracked, it spun off with my fingers.

Getting the top bolt back in I could see was going to be a challenge so I sat down and had a think about it for a bit and a quick search on here for tips. I won't bore everyone with the search suffice to say the best bit of advice I found was to put away the 1/2 inch drive and use a 3/8 drive instead. It made for a whole lot more room for my ham fists and the long sockets in my 3/8 drive set meant no need for the knuckle. Next hurdle was holding the bolt in the socket as you have to do the top bolt by feel and you can't afford to drop the bolt or lose the socket. I read about magnetic sockets and blue tac and chewing gum to hold the bolt in the socket, (none of which I had on a sunday afternoon), so I came up with what I think is a better method than all of those. The magnetic socket is expensive, and the blue tac and chewies are messy and unreliable in varying degrees to my mind, so I decided to just wind some thread tape, (plumbers tape), around the head of the bolt and press it into the long 13mm socket. It held it firmly without jambing it in and when in place the socket slipped right off without a drama.

So armed with my trusty 13mm 3/8 socket and ratchet and some thread tape I had the old starter out of the wagon in under 10 minutes and the new one in in about the same time, finding the top bolt hole in under 20 seconds by feel and nipping the whole lot up, including the power cable, with the ratchet which was much easier than with the spanner, and had the car off the ramps and parked back in the driveway in less than 30 minutes without a single swear word being uttered or a single knuckle being skinned. I was so happy about that I just had to share.


Cheers
Bushbasher