I do not know of many replacement starters that sounded exactly like the one that was removed. I would not worry about the sound. Glad you got it fixed!

 

Much mahalo (thanks) to all! I appreciate it, takes a lot of worry out of my daily grind (and let's hope that's the only 'grind' to it!).

 

Just finished replacing the starter, struggled all morning until I reached through the fenderwell with a 1/4" ratchet and 8mm and 13mm sockets and removed the wires. Then used a 1/2" ratchet and 13mm socket from under the jacked up vehicle to remove the 2 bolts. Pulled it out of the bellhousing and rotated it 180 degrees and it slid right out. Previously tried pulling it out gear end first without success. After figuring out the process, only took another half hour to do the reverse and get it back together.

Hope this specific information helps somebody.

 

Just put a new starter in my '97 4x4 yesterday. had to cut the nuts off the old one (rusted), took off the right fron tire to get to the wires. Was not too bad but putting the new one in was much easier that getting the old one out..

Now its on the rusted balljoints, tierods, leaking oil line and transmission seal...

Royce

 

Thanks so much for the help. My son worked for 2 hours trying to get the starter out of our 2001 blazer. Found your thread on here and it only took him a few minutes to have the old one out and the new one in. Thanks to all who share their time and ways of fixing a problem. This old nana was sure glad you all are here....lol.

 

I did it! 1998 Blazer 4x4 replace starter motor. Tips that might help you too!

If you have gotten this far, maybe you are willing to go a little bit farther.

So I'm not really into fixing cars for fun.
Maybe you are like me, I came to this forum trying to figure out how to do it yourself. This instructions / guide / directions might sound really basic to some, but that is what I was looking for (now I'm going to try to provide it). Now, I consider myself very knowledgeable in this specific repair, mostly because I learned the hard way.

So after my car didn't start, you figure it isn't the battery, because you get a jump (and headlights are bright). Car doesn't do the click, click, click, START.
No more click, clicks. Before the Starter totally died, my Blazer was doing the click, click, click, click, click, PULL BACK KEY, Push Key Forward, Click, click, START. Well --NOW-- I know that is a big clue that my starter was dieing.

FIRST, Read this WHOLE topic thread -- It helps. Also, awe341 posts was very helpful! Basically, this Blazer starter replacement isn't your typical easy starter replacement.

(disconnect neg. lead to battery first)
My starter was located on the underside of the car, passenger side. Go to an auto parts website, enter you info in and take a look at the starters. That is what you are looking for. Now that dome like thing is actually inside the engine so you won't see that. Get under the car in that area, and see if you can find those two bolts. You will need a DEEP SOCKET With SOCKET EXTENSION. I would loosen them now, because it can shake the car a bit. (keep the bolts semi-tightly in)

Next step, is a bit harder. ** Some people are saying you can rotate that starter after you remove the two bolts to get to the wire bolts on the top. I TRIED, AND TRIED, AND IT IS DARN NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO GET ACCESS TO THE WIRE BOLTS FROM UNDER THE CAR (wires too short, area way too tight, rotation not possible) **

Now, go to the wheel well, lift up the rubber flap behind the wheel covering in the direction of the engine (not your mud flap, silly). Mine had a slit in it already(very helpful), which once I lifted to look in, I saw the TOP small Wire Bolt/Nut of the starter (actually this smaller cylinder is called the solenoid, but it is all connected away) , (go back to your internet picture), just below it is bigger one. NOTICE how the wire once bolted in, kinda slides into a grove? NO? Don't worry you will. You just have a really bad angle with that tire there!

*** YES YOU HAVE TO REMOVE THE TIRE! Trust me it isn't hard. *** Follow the directions on your blazer jack carefully, to lift up the car, remove the tire. It is kind scary working under a car, jacked up, --Be careful--. I placed strong stuff (like my on its side removed tire) an inch under the clearance of the lifted car, so if the jack messed up the car wouldn't come all the way down. (Your peace of mind crap shouldn't touch the frame of the car, let the jack do its job!)

Loosen the top wire nut and remove (there is top nut with wire on the far side but don't worry about that one at all). Crescent wrench worked for me, then the connecting wire slides off. For the lower (bigger) nut, I was able to use a socket wrench to loosen it. You should see how this wire is much bigger and has that groove washer thing with it. (Bigger wire attaches to bigger nut/bolt, smaller wire to smaller nut/bolt, remember which is which).... Anyways the wires are now slide off the bolt and nothing from the top of the starter is keeping the starter from being rotated, except the two big bolts connecting it to the engine(your under the car bolts).

Use your deep socket w/ exten. to now take out those two bottom bolts off. It isn't likely to fall on your head once unbolted, but try to keep a hand on it. Also dirt will be falling on your face and the starter will become shifty.

NOW ANOTHER TRICKY PART... it is heavy and you have slide it out a small hole. This takes some time and patience. Slide the starter out of the engine, so you begin to see that dome. (Now if you have a smooth dome, that is called "Internal Thru Bolt Starter". If you have a dome is bumpy that is called "External Thru Bolt Starter". I had the External,... you might have the smooth one. They are NOT interchangeable, so you will need to know this when buying the replacement part (go back to your auto parts pictures page to compare). ... And we're back, the dome is out of the engine, holding the bigger cylinder, that dome thing gets rotated up into the cavity of the car. There is going to be some moving around and rotation, but I got mine out with the big base cylinder out first, then the end with the solenoid/dome side coming out last. Once you finally can tell that it is going to slip out, Remember how you are holding it, what angle it was at, and which way everything was facing... so it will be easier putting in the new baby--I mean replacement starter-- back in.

Do the crazy rotation game again, and slide you dome back in flush, bolt it in, check to see if you top wires can still be found after all that rotating. Put your wires back on exactly how they looked before coming off. Put tire back on, remove jack, slide under to give the two bolts one last look and sturdy tighten (35lbs torque). connect neg. lead back on battery, and hope that you aren't Marty McFly and your Blazer starts right up!

Hope that helps. I took some pictures, but not feeling attaching them after my huge essay. Since, I'm probably not going to be in this forum until my Blazer breaks down again, you can message me since I'm a redditor with the same user name, AgentArcher. Hopefully it will be only about Thanks on how awesome and helpful my detailed description was,... anyways.

Later

 

From experience, I can tell you that it is much smoother when the "Y" to exhaust manifold bolts are removed and the pipe/s dropped a little.

 

Hi all, new guy to this forum and am having a heck of a time removing a starter from a 99 4.3 4wd blazer. searched the forums and this was the closest thread I could find relating to my problem, of getting it out.
Basically looks like I'll have to jack the engine up an inch or two. question I have is on the motor mount. unbolt it from the block or should i remove the long center bolt going thru it? both look like a pain to get to and just thinking about when i go to put it back together. thanks in advance.

 

"jack the engine up an inch or two" -- whoa, talk about making this a hard job.

And I thought it was tricky my way.

My thoughts are not to mess with stuff I don't need to.

Anyways, I got mine out without too much fiddling by:

1. Jack car up on pass. side front, remove wheel
2. Lift the side wall flap to get access to unbolt the two wires that connect car to the solenoid. tie the wires out of the way so they don't disappear into the body of the car.
3. go under car to unbolt those massive bolts, pull dome of starter out of the engine and then rotate the starter so the dome side goes up into the engine then do some rotating and 90 degrees, then slide it out.
4. put new starter in the same way.

Btw-- neg. battery lead has been disconnected the whole time

Here are some photos.

http://imgur.com/a/p3CB7

 

Well first off, thanks for all the help from this forum. It saved me alot of uneeded work. the starter was out in about 5 minutes after flipping it around and back in about the same.
The idea that I had to jack the engine came from the autozone online repairs manual. thank you again.