How to replace the starter?

Hi Ken,

In the removal directions you gave me, step 5 still says to remove the left drive shaft. If I'm not mistaken, in the photo I uploaded, I have attempted to remove the left drive shaft. Is that not the drive shaft that is hanging between the shock absorber forks?

In step 4 it says to remove the starter motor bracket. In looking at the diagram you sent me, I don't know if that bracket is even on there. It doesn't look familiar. However, it's very difficult to see up in there even with a flashlight. Poor eyesight doesn't help either. I do know that the starter and wires are covered with grease and grime. About a year ago the s-terminal came disconnected. When I was trying to reconnect it, I could feel it was covered in grease and grime. It's definitely nasty in there.

Just so you'll know, and for the record, the guy friend who is helping me is my ex-husband. Though he is a certified mechanic, neither of us are foreign cars fans at all. The car actually belongs to my son, and he can't work on it due to a back injury. Also, we can't afford to send it to a shop. The nearest foreign cars specialists are in Amarillo, over 100 miles away.

I was relying on foreign cars forums for information, one of them being the Acura forum. I didn't think that I was listening to a bunch of know-it-alls who think they know but really don't. So, it's not my friend's fault that we were doing it wrong.

Anyway, the directions still say the drive shaft has to be removed. I thought the only way to remove the drive shaft was to remove the hub. Also, as you can see in the photo, we do have the drive shaft disconnected from the tranny. When we pulled it out as far as we did, we didn't realize that there was about another foot or so of the shaft that would come out of the tranny. If we're still supposed to pull the drive shaft, how was it supposed to be done?

Thea

Hi Ken,

Yes, we are having an issue. The end of the drive shaft which connects to the transfer case is pretty big. We need to get the whole thing out without hurting to boot. However, we are having an issue with a certain specialty nut. I don't know what size it is. I ordered a external torx set but it only goes up to E20. The nut we're trying to remove so we can completely remove the drive shaft, is much bigger than an E20. How can I find out what size I need so I can find one?

I don't have much time to get this car back together before HUD comes for inspection. I can get evicted for even doing minor work on my vehicle, but this is a major job. No starter should be this hard to replace.

Thea

Hi Ken,

Well, as it turns out, we didn't have to take off that inverted torx nut after all. Instead we unmounted the shock assembly and were able to remove the drive shaft. Now were having a hell of a time trying to get the exhaust y pipe off. Wow! Acura just didn't give much room at all to get at these parts. I guess that's why the vehicle needs a foreign cars specialty shop or an Acura dealer shop.

However, the last time we sent this car to the specialty shop, it cost us nearly 3k for two trips, just to replace the valve cover gaskets and the top and bottom radiator hoses. Who has that kind of money these days? Certainly not I!

As far as that inverted torx nut goes. Another odd thing about it is it has 10 points instead of 6 points. So, I wouldn't even know what to call this type of nut or the tool to take it off. Furthermore, I found a photo of the control arm from Acura parts department, and it is all one unit. So, I don't think that nut was meant to be removed.

Hi Ken,

Oh no. You misunderstand. We haven't got the old starter out yet. We're still faced with getting the Y pipe off just so we can reach one single bolt. I just don't understand what the car designers were thinking when they designed this car. You have to do all this work just to replace the starter, let alone remove half the exhaust system just to get to one measly bolt.

All morning, we fought just to get a stupid heat shroud off of the top part of the exhaust. And we still don't have it off. We fought just to remove four bolts with nuts. We still have one bolt and nut to remove. Neither of us realized that the bolts were splined until I was able to find a bolt while we were cleaning up. My friend was so angry that he was throwing them as he got them out. The bolts were on the outside and the nuts on the inside--totally backwards. We still have one to remove and all of that just to reach one bolt to uncouple the exhaust from the manifold. If he hadn't have thrown the bolts as he took them out, and instead handed them to me, I could have told him that the bolts were splined and to remove the nuts first.

No starter should be this hard to reach. If this were my 85 Dodge D150, it would be done and over within 30 minutes.

The worse part about working on this Acura is that we don't have a shop with a car lift. All we have is a jack and jack stands. So, me, a 57-year-old woman not in the best of shape, and my friend who's 62 and has cerebral palsy, are under this car trying to figure out how to dismantle it, on our backs with not a lot of room to maneuver. I'd like a stick of dynamite please.

Thea

Hello Ken,

Well, that really sucks! We ended up having to buy a new cv axel for the Acura. I'm telling you, if it ain't one thing it's another with this car. Apparently, when we were removing the axel, it was being stubborn to dislodge, and we didn't know that we shouldn't yank on it. In the process of taking it off, the boot that covers the CV joint broke open, and the joint dislodged from the grooves inside the hub and we got a gooey slippery mess. The way this car is designed, is just ridiculous. I've never encountered a design like it.

What's more, we couldn't get the starter out because whoever was in there last, wrenched down the bolts on the exhaust pipe so tight we couldn't get them off. They must have used an impact to put them on because there is no way that those bolts were on 45 ft. Lbs. We were barely able to reach the top bolt of the starter after I removed the heat shroud from the exhaust pipe, and it too was severely over tightened and there was no way we could get an impact on either bolt. Just to reach the top bolt for the exhaust and the starter, we had to use about two feet of extensions and a swivel. Every time my buddy tried to loosen either bolt, the swivel would bind up. We even tried putting tape around the swivel to stabilize it. Then if he was able to get a bite on the bolts, the pressure he had to use was pushing out from under the car.

Anyway, about a year ago, the car wouldn't start at all. And through a YouTube video I found, I learned that there is a wire that is attached by a blade connector. Well, this wire had came off. I think it happened when we put a new alternator on it. Anyway, I checked to see if that wire came off. I discovered that it did, so I tried like hell to reconnect it. It took me nearly two hours to get the wire back on, even with removing the wheel. I'm hoping that when I reconnected the wire, that I didn't actually have the female on the male, but it was only touching. With everything removed, it was much easier to reach that wire. When I reattached it, folded back the boot covering the connecter so I could see the female part to get it on the male firmly.

So keep your fingers crossed that after we get this piece of junk back together, it starts right up. I am planning to sell it after it's back together, regardless if it starts right up or not. I gotta get that thing out of my life. It's literally going to take a shop the get that starter replaced and I can't afford it. I'll use whatever money I get from it to finish fixing my 85 Dodge D150. I almost got it up and running. I only need to replace the shifter linkage seal on the tranny and put new fluid in it and it should be good to go.

Thea