Yesterday I started my truck, drove down the street, and came back. Parked the truck, jacked it up, changed the oil, tried to crank it. It would turn over and then stop and all you'd hear was the starter whining. It's been giving me trouble and I'm pretty sure the starter finally gave out on me.

I started to take the starter out but I'm having a lil trouble. Laying under the truck, I have easy access to the 2 mounting bolts, but getting to the nuts holding the wires to the solenoid is proving damn near impossible. From the top, the exhaust manifold and heat shield are in the way.

I'm sure a good number of y'all have changed starters on the 4.3 (I think it may be the same setup on the 2.8 as well) and was wondering if there was a good way to get to those nuts. I'm open to suggestions because it's giving me a damn fit.

 

i heared somewere that you had to drop the engine to get it out, i dont know if thats true or not, never had to take mine out

 

Take the two bolts out that are holding the starter to the motor and you should be able to move the starter around enough to get at the other nuts on the solenoid.

 

Now that is just not right... I don't think there is an engineer in the world that would make you pull the engine to replace the starter. If there were, it would be GM though, considering where the starter is on the Northstars.

Anyway, yeah, like Jman said, you should be able to rotate it around to get to the lugs. Last starter I changed (2.8L Firebird) I had to use my 1/4" rachet, deep sockets and my 1" extension to get just the right length, but not too much to remove both the nuts.

Believe it or not, that wasn't the most difficult part of the install. The B!tch of a time was getting the starter aligned properly. Took 3 shim packs from the store to get the check block between the ring gear and the starter shaft! So 2 extra trips to the store! Sucked big time! Not to mention I was pretty damn tired out from all of the holding up of the starter I had to do while fitting in more shims!

 

If you take off the flywheel cover it makes it a lot easier to get to. Thats how I got to mine on my 94 s-10