Need info on installing a starter on a 87 GN....

[Odog87]

The other day I went to start my GN up and all I got was a loud grinding noise. So I bought a new starter yesterday. Upon finally jacking the car up today I noticed the starter housing was cracked pretty bad in two places. Now the problem I face is removing it.

Am I suppose to disconnect the pipe that connects the headers to the exhaust?

Or is there an easier way to remove and replace the starter? Because Im having a hard time reaching the two or three bolts that hold it on.

Also what are the shims used for that come with the starter?

 

[Phoneguy]

You will need to remove the crossover pipe. Do yourself a favor and get a mini high torque starter and you wont have to ever remove the pipe again to service the starter. The mini is alot lighter as well. You may or may not need the shims, they are used to shim the starter away from the flexplate if it fits too tight and grinds when starting.

Bryan

 

[turbofrank]

Place a jack or jackstand under starter to help support it. It gets heavy trying to hold it.

 

[azbob]

Disconnect the negative cable at your battery
Remove the crossover pipe
Disconnect the positive wire and the small ignition switch wire from the starter
Do not let the starter hang by the wires
Remove the two bolts and slide the starter out
Installation is the reverse procedure

 

[scojack_2001]

The other day I went to start my GN up and all I got was a loud grinding noise. So I bought a new starter yesterday. Upon finally jacking the car up today I noticed the starter housing was cracked pretty bad in two places. Now the problem I face is removing it.

Am I suppose to disconnect the pipe that connects the headers to the exhaust?

Or is there an easier way to remove and replace the starter? Because Im having a hard time reaching the two or three bolts that hold it on.

Also what are the shims used for that come with the starter?

You have to disconnect at least one side of the crossover pipe and swing it out of the way. Its not hard to do, except for the lead brick of the factory starter. It gets heavy.

I put a LT4 gear reduction unit on mine. Much smaller, much lighter and it uses less power. The factory fusible links and battery cable are tight though. But its been working fine.

 

[bmackinnon]

What are you guys talking about??? I have replaced my stock, non-lt1, starter a couple times without touching the crossover... It's a bit of a beeiitch, but it'll go in and out without messing w/ the x-over... a few creative curse words may be required though...:wink:

 

[Topjimmy]

You shouldn't have to remove the stock exhaust crossover pipe to remove the stock starter. You may have to move the transmission lines a bit to access the starter bolts.
Did the engine backfire? If it did, that's the reason for the broken starter nose. It will break on the replacement too if the engine backfires again and no, it's not covered under starter warranty. A soluition to the broken nose problem is to use the LT-4 Corvette mini-starter which has no nose to break. http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/how-tos/322666-lt-4-starter-upgrade-tr-s-tta-s.html
The shims are used to align the teeth of the starter drive to the flywheel. In most cases, if the original starter has shims, just reuse them with the replacement starter. You can add or remove shims if the starter whines or grinds when first cranked over.
If you use the LT-4 starter, it will whine by design since it's a gear-reduction unit but it may still require a shim or two as mine did.

HTH - Jimmy

 

[Odog87]

Got the starter in today, had to remove the cross over

 

[Odog87]

Got the starter in today, had to remove the cross over Pipe but we got it in. I finally drove my Gn for the first time today, I'm hooked. And glad I bought it. Its a fixer upper but over all ain't to bad. And the car has never backfired since ive had it. Just went to start it and it just grinded. Now I need to get a scan master and boost gauge.

 

[twodafloor]

/

Turbo Buick the quiet addiction- go bury your wallet now!

 

[Odog87]

Thanks for all the support folks....You made the install pretty simple.

 

[just plain john]

Just exactly how many wires connect to the starter? And what are the fusible links I keep hearing about?

 

[turbo39151]

Just an aside on the crossover pipe; I've had to remove mine several times and found that when I first pulled the pipe and wire brushed the bolts, adding a generous amount of anti-seize to them made them a pleasure to work with on subsequent occasions. No fighting. They always come out nice and smooth but, never come loose during normal operations...

 

[garyk1970]

Just exactly how many wires connect to the starter? And what are the fusible links I keep hearing about?

looks like one main,one trigger,and three fusible links,split off to 6 feed wires....fuesable links is wire designed to burn in half if a catastrophic short occurs,but handle a large load.

1)large bolt= main power feed from battery (red 2ga)
large bolt= fusible links to power dash,fuse block,large items;
a) one fuse link (E),splits to two leads are cooling fans relays feed.
b)fusible link (B)to ign switch and fuse block
c)fusible link (A) blower motor havac feed,horn relay,theft,and fuse block.

2) then the starter trigger feed (purple) from ign switch through neutral safely switch and anti-theft if applicable.

 

[just plain john]

you are the MAN gary, thanks a lot. I found the fusable links, but for some reason they aren't shown in the service manual I'm looking at which is why I asked. Thanks again.

 

[garyk1970]

you are the MAN gary, thanks a lot. I found the fusable links, but for some reason they aren't shown in the service manual I'm looking at which is why I asked. Thanks again.

No problem,most of this was off memory,then verified/fixed by my alldata program. Member salvagegn is very sharp too,so I have to make sure I'm accurate or he will let me know.:biggrin:

 

[just plain john]

Looks like I'm set then, at least as far as starter hook up goes. It's a challenge to get the harnesses installed and working without any reference, especially without any prior TR experience.

 

[smoove mood]

looks like one main,one trigger,and three fusible links,split off to 6 feed wires....fuesable links is wire designed to burn in half if a catastrophic short occurs,but handle a large load.

1)large bolt= main power feed from battery (red 2ga)
large bolt= fusible links to power dash,fuse block,large items;
a) one fuse link (E),splits to two leads are cooling fans relays feed.
b)fusible link (B)to ign switch and fuse block
c)fusible link (A) blower motor havac feed,horn relay,theft,and fuse block.

2) then the starter trigger feed (purple) from ign switch through neutral safely switch and anti-theft if applicable.

hey gary you seem very knowledgeable and I want to ask if you can tell me exactly where these wires go? I recently went to a local shop and they gave me my car back with the wire from the fire wall to the starter all jacked up and I'm trying my best to reconfigure it.

 

[captndave737]

Here’s the diagram from the service manual showing the fuse able links. The one that runs from the battery directly to the ECM is orange and has a weatherpack connector about a foot from the battery. It should be disconnected before working on the ECM, like changing chips.

 

[gsgnnut]

X3 removing cross pipe not necessary. When I changed mine I never even considered it. Ignorance can be bliss. Yes that sucker is heavy.