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An illustrated guide to changing and testing your starter

18K views 34 replies 23 participants last post by  ray85p 
#1 ·
Okay, so from my experiences of the last couple days, I've changed the starter in and out about 6 times. I figured a visual guide, as opposed to words might be easier, as it's pretty much the stupidest starter-placement i've ever seen.



so here we have it: the good car. this one needs a starter, or so we think. (note presence of dead turbo k car)


the donor, soon to be parted out.


these are the tools you will need. note that i have a small extension, but two big ones is best. the 13mm is used to take off the battery connection.


this is how you should assemble it all together. how pretty.


oh, and make sure you disconnect the battery. for the love of god (and your starter) please do that. don't forget or you'll be sorry.


this is what you see from the top. basically you need to get your hand/arm down one of the two areas indicated by the arrows in order to place the no-extension ratchet on the engine side of the top bolt. if you peer down right by the firewall (top arrow), you can see this bolt. it's not that hard to get onto, and once it's stuck on there, it won't fall off.


this is what you see from under the car. the easy starter bolt is front and foremost in the picture.


first, we'll use the extension ratchet with a 13mm socket to take off the battery cable. also unplug the ignition cable.


to get the first bolt out easily, i attached the extended ratchet on the transmission side of the bolt, and the regular ratchet suspended on the engine side. this way, i could easily turn the transmission side, undoing the bolt.


this is where it gets tricky. you've got a very narrow "pathway" to stick the extended ratched up from beneath the car. what you must do is stick your left arm up beside the starter and over top, feeling for the top bolt. feed the extended ratchet up that pathway, directing it onto the transmission side bolt with your left hand once it's up high enough.

once the extended ratchet is attached, you will want to go up to the top of the engine, and attach the normal ratchet via the two pathways in the 5th picture above.


this is sort of what you should see. behind that gargantuan finger, you will just be able to make out your regular ratchet, suspended above on the engine side of the bolt. turn the extended ratchet to undo the bolt. I found that the swivel head makes it really easy for the socket to come off the bolt, so i stuck my left hand up over the starter (as before) and grabbed onto the socket, making sure it stayed on the bolt. this hurts, and takes a while, but it does get the job done.

once your starter has both bolts out... it suddenly gains a lot of mass and may fall on your head. to avoid this - don't let it fall on your head :D. when you get close to undoing the second nut, brace the starter against your left wrist (as your left hand is holding onto the socket) so that it won't fall all the way down onto your face. odds are it wouldn't anyways, as toyota graciously supplied many random wires and metal pieces to get in the way. but better safe than sorry.

and this is me testing the starter. i DO scream like a girl, because electricity scares me. but you can see what i'm doing. basically, i touched a starter to the + battery plug and the ignition connection on the starter.
http://timber.rbss.net/efavideos/images/supra1/starter/starter_testing.MOV

//edit: if you own an automatic transmission and want to swap your starter, convert to 5 speed first, it's easier.
 
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#27 ·
majjam1954 said:
quick said:
I've been saying this as well for about 2 years, MJ. Glad to hear others are on the same page. :)
thanks quick! there are lots of easy repairs we can do to save $$. i have also successfully rebuilt blower motors and alternators :!:
How dificult is it to rebuild the blower motor? where would I get the parts?

will
 
#29 ·
After much blood, sweat and tears my stupid starter is finally in again! wooohoooo. Next time, i'm paying a shop to do it. I managed to escape with only a nasty cut under my eye (dropped a rachet :(). It goes in MUCH easier than it comes out though and it's a shame i have to hide my shiny new starter in the engine bay.
 
#31 ·
i jsut took my starter out from the top with a 3/8th and 1 extension + 13 and 14 scoket.

i didnt realise it was so easy. you just got to know the feel of it. got the contacts and plunger replaced with denso ones and now the car starts no problem.

time to give'er
 
#33 ·
SupraFiend (Seamus) may have them somewhere, but as one who has removed a starter in the past week for a clutch replacement, I was laughing at re-reading this thread. Remove the top bolt first, as the bottom one is easy. And don't disassemble the starter - no 10mm bolts. The two times I've done this I've tried to take the starter apart. Repeat, no 10 mm.

I also needed a magnet several times to retrieve dropped wrenches. Hint, remove the front driver-side tire so you have better access. The Neg cable bolt to the starter is the only 13mm I've found on a Supra.

At least you aren't trying to pull the 2 upper bellhousing bolts. EVIL
 
#34 ·
id be pumped if the pics still worked!
 
#35 ·
After laughing my ass off, I had to reply to this ancient thread. The first time I removed the starter, I was dreaming about those who built these wonderful cars and wondered why they had really long arms and tiny hands. Then I had to listen to a buddy about how long it took. Unfortunately, I'd discovered the bad contacts but didn't have them. A quick fix at least lasted well past the parts arriving. So next time, my buddy got to remove the top bolt. Ha Ha. Same as my first time, 45 seconds on the lower, 45 minutes or more on the upper and he's a small guy! We both decided that if there ever was a next time, it would be faster to remove the trans! Well, I recently did it again and it was very easy from below with a 2' extension and to tame that universal, I wrapped duct tape around it. I shone a light on it and it was a piece of cake. Those of you with small hands and hopefully long arms can do it any way you want. We all knew that these cars were designed to be easy to assemble not easy to fix. Fortunately, while not perfect, we're much luckier than most others.
 
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