My starter finally passed on !!

AndrewCRD · **Joined:** Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:45 pm **Posts:** 50

It took it a few good months, before now it would sound like the thing would spin but not get pushed into the engine. It would slip a lot and finally croaked yesterday. Sadly my driveway is slanted so its bit of a PIA to work on it ... not to mention the 2ft of snow. Now, i started by removing the skid plate and in a few hours i managed to only do about quarter inch of one bolt ... for some reason my impact wrenches dont do jack on it so i have to use a wrench with a pipe. That is not a big deal just very slow.

As far as i can see after taking out the skid plate, i need to remove the front driveshaft to get to the starter and then the fun starts. Is there anything special about taking out the drive shaft ?

Any other suggestions are welcome as well.

Andrei

Mountainman · **Posted:** Tue Apr 05, 2016 11:24 am

Please save yourself and don't drop the driveshaft! Also, I have a 1/2" drive 10mm just for those bolts, as they tend to be really tight, and they want to round off. The top one sucks pretty bad on a fully assembled CRD. 1/2" drive ratchet, with 6" extension is what I use for the top one I think, but it's been a while since I had to do one with the head on/where I couldn't access from the topside.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Tue Apr 05, 2016 12:38 pm

I'd be curious what you end up with for a replacement, and how many miles your OEM one lasted? I am going to replace mine since I drive in remote places, and mine has 180k miles on it, but I want to find the best available. The stock ones seem to be very good IMO.

papaindigo · **Posted:** Tue Apr 05, 2016 2:18 pm

For what it's worth idParts has the OEM starter which should be decent as there is nothing special about starters. That said a good autoelectric shop can probably rebuild one for a reasonable price pretty quick.

AndrewCRD · **Joined:** Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:45 pm **Posts:** 50

I am just about to go back at it, finishing work in a few minutes. So you say DONT remove the drive shaft ? I saw another video where a dude said the same thing, but i dont think this was on a liberty ... maybe a cherokee not sure.
At this point im still trying to rip out those skid plate bolts. It would be great if once i remove the skid plate there is enough room to take out the starter ... believe me i dont want to take out the driveshaft.
I was going to go out and buy a 1/2" ratcheting breaker bar, the breaker bar i have does not wrathet so its sloooow.

By the way the starter i bought is a Vision-OE remanufactured one. It cost me around 250USD with a $50 back when i return the old one. Also i do not know if anyone changed it before me or not, my car has 130k miles on it i bought it about 30ks ago.

The thing is im quite sure i broke this starter, it would of lasted waaaay longer. The car does not start in the winter ... AT ALL, red some stuff and i replaced the fuel filter assembly with the new version ones etc etc. I guess the idea is that it just cannot keep the 20k PSI of pressure in the rail in the winter so the pump has to keep turning to build the pressure ... so yes in the end poor starter just died.

I mean i have to do 2 battery charges sometimes to get it started ...

Mountainman · **Posted:** Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:29 pm

Yeah, they come out no problem with the drive shaft installed. I just completely pulled all of the transmission bolts, TC bolts, and removed the starter with the front shaft in place.

Your jeep should start down to about 20 degrees without too much trouble. You try cycling the glow plugs twice, and run a premium battery? I've seen the duralast Golds work pretty good down to about 20 degrees, and I think there are better ones out there.

AndrewCRD · **Joined:** Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:45 pm **Posts:** 50

man, im 3 out of 4 bolts stripped from the skid plate ... but finally out and ... easily took out 2 of the 3 10mm bolts

for the hell of me i cannot find the 3rd one. based on what i can make out from the new one the third one is on top of the starter and ill be damned if i can get to it.

Altho youre completely right, there is plenty of room to get the starter out without the drive shaft removal. Phew what a blessing that is. I have no clue how im going to get to that last bolt at the moment. :banghead:

Mountainman · **Posted:** Tue Apr 05, 2016 10:31 pm

Yeah, that's the bad one. If I remember correctly, you can get it with a 1/2" ratchet and 6" extension, but it's a knuckle busting, shoulder tearing endeavor. I also might have put a box wrench on it and hit it with a hammer, or linked another box wrench for more leverage. Just remember that that bolt is easy compared to the upper transmission bolts, if you ever want to cross that bridge.

AndrewCRD · **Joined:** Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:45 pm **Posts:** 50

I dont have a 1/2 ratchet but i have a 3/8s one with a 6" extension. I used one of those ratcheting wrenches on the other two bolts and they came out easily. Problem with this one i cannot even see it, so i have no idea how i can put the socket to it.
To make things worse, its snowing now

Oh well, i saved a few hundred bucks and now i have me a nice new 3ton floor jack which is going to be great for doing my breaks in the spring ... whenever it comes.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Wed Apr 06, 2016 11:28 am

yeah, you can only see that bolt from the top, and that's with a bunch of stuff out of the way. You have to do it by feel, and make sure you're putting pressure to keep the socket from rounding it off. If the other two weren't super tight, you might get it with a 3/8" drive, but the knuckle busting factor will increase.

I've had to cut some of those obnoxious skid bolts off before :banghead:

AndrewCRD · **Joined:** Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:45 pm **Posts:** 50

did you replace the skid bolts ? right now i only have one in place, the two front ones are completely gone. Sort of feel bad leaving that area exposed. I guess the only way to get it back in there is to drill and tap that area again.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Wed Apr 06, 2016 12:26 pm

That's actually on my list. I'll probably drill and tap new holes, and use lots of grease so they don't corrode again. Maybe even spray some PB blaster or something on them every 6 months or so. hmm

I have the old bolt stubs stuck in some of the holes, so I'm not exactly sure what I'll do. Can't drill them out since they spin. Maybe go all the way through and run a nut with a lock washer if possible...

AndrewCRD · **Joined:** Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:45 pm **Posts:** 50

That was my initial thought too, but i dont know it would be very easy to retap those holes. Im thinking of slightly drilling the old bolts ... maybe 1/4" and welding new bolts in there so the skid plate goes in and i can just tighten it with a nut.

thermorex · **Posted:** Wed Apr 06, 2016 2:57 pm

Mountainman wrote:

That's actually on my list. I'll probably drill and tap new holes, and use lots of grease so they don't corrode again. Maybe even spray some PB blaster or something on them every 6 months or so. hmm

I have the old bolt stubs stuck in some of the holes, so I'm not exactly sure what I'll do. Can't drill them out since they spin. Maybe go all the way through and run a nut with a lock washer if possible...

You probably have something like this that's spinning:

If so, you may be able to grind it out and get new ones.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Wed Apr 06, 2016 3:41 pm

cool, thanks for the Part # :JEEPIN:

AndrewCRD · **Joined:** Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:45 pm **Posts:** 50

So a final update to this.

I managed to get the starter out from above, keep in my jeep EGR has been .. "relocated" ( to the garbage). I had to pull out the fuel filter and was able to fit my hand all the way down to this bolt and actually see what im doing. I used a 10mm ratcheting wrench mainly because it was small and way lighter. After the bolt came loose it was too loose for me, i had a lot of trouble getting it to turn. After about 40 minutes (not exagerating) of turning it finally came out.
I left the yellow connector in until it the starter was out, this made it way easier to pull out.
The new one was a breeze to put in, all the way to ... ofcourse the last bolt. Once at the last bolt i just repeated the procedure and another 40 minutes later it was in solid.

Id say the whole job takes about 2 hours at most ... not including the top bolt ... yah

now off too fixing the skid plate ... somehow
Im not sure i quite understand the parts you guys are talking aboot in the prev. post. Would you drill out the bolts and put those in ?

thermorex · **Posted:** Thu Apr 07, 2016 10:51 am

In the chassis there are some hexagonal holes in which you fit the parts I posted. Then, the bolt will squash the part in the hexagonal hole. If you put too much torque, it will round up the edges of the inserted part and will spin.

There is also a kit that's used when first installing the part in the hexagonal hole, but I one never used it. It's purpose is to compress the part in the hexagonal hole. If you pay attention when you torque the bolt (one full turn torque, half turn untorque), you don't have an issue when installing a new part in the hexagonal hole.

So to remove a bad one, grind it out and push it in once the bottom part is removed with grinding.

AndrewCRD · **Joined:** Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:45 pm **Posts:** 50

This is for the front skid plate right ?

On mine there were 4 bolts that screwed in the chasis, 2 of them at the back and 2 in the middleish of the skid plate. What youre saying is the threads for those bolts are those parts you posted ? I really couldnt make out much detail because of the rust. Im def. going to take another look under there.

thermorex · **Posted:** Thu Apr 07, 2016 11:38 pm

I believe the front set is bolted on different nuts than the rear, which is using the ones I posted.

My starter finally passed on !!

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