My 89 iroc has a bad starter. I was thinking about replacing it. When I got under the car to remove it, the exhaust is in the way. I tried to rotate the starter to try to ease it out, but to no avail. Is taking the exhaust off mandatory to remove the starter? It is a 305 auto, single cat, if this helps.

 

No it is not necessary to pull the exhaust. There is exactly one combination of directions you have to turn it to get it out. IIRC you have to turn it nose down with the solenoid at some weird angle.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

whee! Wait until you get to reshim it.

You can rotate it out. No unbolting necessary.

Note about the shimming: I would try to put the starter in without shimming it first and see if it needs it before going through all the trouble. I've replaced about 6 starters and only 1 needed shimming.

 

Whoa!!! RB83L69 is right. It IS possible to take the starter out without removing the exhaust. Trust me and do yourself a favor by just unbolting it anyway. The starter is a little on the heavy side espesially when you're woking on the underside of your car. It's a pain to manuver the thing around when it's that heavy but it's such an easy job when the exhaust pipes are unbolted. I've done it both ways.

That's my two cents.

 

Ahh....Yes... The combination lock of arm torture. I remember it well. It seems to get the new one in requires a different pattern than romoving the old one. Unless it just seems that way because it fell on my head and i wuz sufferin from amnesia.

 

Did mine about a year and a half ago and it wasn't fun. Maybe on the hoist it's easier but laying on my back wasn't. I had to remove the solenoid to take the starter out and to put the new solenoid back in. To reinstall the solenoid wires and screws was also difficult. Removing the exhaust would make it easier though...but good luck anyways.