Re: How can I remove the starter motor? (archive)

...and a few other things here and there. I loosened the whole FI assembly so that it could be moved around a bit, but be really careful since those fuel lines are stiff & I imagine a bit fragile.

We went in from the top. The bolts you need to undo are: three for the mount on the "back" of the starter (which is towards the front of the car). There is a bracket which holds the starter on the back. These are pretty easy (comparitively). The other two are two long bolts with nuts on the end (17mm?) that hold the starter in there on the "front" of the starter (towards the back of the car). This end has the gear that makes contact with the engine and actually turns it over. These two bolts are a pain. We ended up getting a 17mm wrench on the end of one of the bolts and getting a thin-ish socket on the other and turning about 2 degrees each time. Took forever to undo those two bolts!

Once it's all unhooked, you can either pull the starter out by the airbox and out where the battery was, or you can drop it down thru the bottom of the engine.

Similiarly, this was my 1st 320i project, and everything else has been pretty simple in comparison (!). Get ready to get your elbows dirty as you wriggle your hands into impossible positions. Oh, and be careful of all of the coolant hoses. We broke 2 of them and it turned out to be the hardest part of the job to replace them!

Good Luck & have fun.

-mark

My father owns a '82 320i that's been sitting around for the last year because of a starter motor that doesn't work. I've decided to try to fix the car, but I need advice on how to remove the starter.

Do I need to remove the manifold to get to the starter? or is there a different, better way.

I've been reading through a Haynes Manual, but it only has a smal paragraph on the matter and basically says to unbolt the starter and take it out. They remove the starter AFTER removing the engine and transmission from the car.

Thanks
Ben H

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