Pulling a Spider starter

[Joe Martin Cantrell <agiyo@domain.elided>]

Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 09:38:57 -0400
From: "Amanda Hughes" <tumorgirl16@domain.elided>
Subject: Starting woes
Dear Alfa Folks,
The saga of a Spider that won't start! Has anyone got any tips or advice on
how to pull a starter off an Alfa Spider? This is the only thing left that
it could be!!! Thank goodness for all of you and your help, over the last
few months!!!!!!

The year of the car makes a difference in access and I haven't worked on a 
post-Spica engine in a long time, but can pull the starter on my '72 Spider 
in probably 15 minutes, including searching my bag o' tools for the right 
ones.  Others on this digest can probably do it in less time, but the Bosch 
cars or a big bank of carburetors might restrict access.

Using Gear Wrenches, those ratcheting combination wrenches, allows me to do 
this leaning over the fender, never have to get under the car.  No comm'l 
interest, etc, but those things are so handy, its amazing.  If you get only 
a 10mm, 13mm, 17mm and 19mm, you'll simplify your Alfa life a lot, and the 
ones with the little lever to change ratcheting directions are best.

1.  Disconnect your battery ground.
2.  Disconnect the wires from the back of the starter.
3.  Remove the 3 bolts holding the starter to the rear of the engine/bell 
housing, noting that the bolt with the shoulder goes back into the middle 
hole, and remove the starter.  Any good auto electric shop will be able to 
test it for you.

Here in Portland, the better auto battery/electric shops can check it in 
the car, and will tell you if it is only a bad terminal connection or 
whatever.  I actually got "bad" Toyota starter fixed for $1.50 one day when 
my daughter needed my attention more than the car did, and the guy pulled 
the cable, installed a new terminal end, and reinstalled it in the car 
while we waited.

You BET, they'll get my business as long as they're there!

YMMV, esp. if you have a later model,
Joe
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided