This guide is a short and quick one showing how to remove your starter motor and replace it. Worth noting however is that this vehicle has a standard exhaust system, with extractors you will likely need to unbolt them from the head and lever them back away from the motor to be able to get enough space to remove the starter. Also worth noting is that the starter motors used are both standard size, not the newer and far smaller commodore ones that they can be replaced with.

The first step, as with any electrical work, is to remove the positive battery terminal.

Now for this work guide one of these half moon spanners is ideal and will make the job far easier, especially this job!

My next step is to give the bolts a slight loosen just to remove that tightness they have from sitting there for however many years. I don’t remove them yet though. First I do the top.

Next we get the one underneath, the starters are only held on by two bolts, one top and one bottom, with this ring spanner the bottom was very easy to remove but the top was still a bit hard to get to.

With the other two bolts loosened slightly it is time to remove the wiring from the front of the starter, be sure you removed the positive from the battery though because these wires will likely drop and touch the chassis. The wires will all be attached to the positive terminal of the starter and there will be one push on connection also.

After the wires are removed we can undo the two bolts that hold the starter, it may be in your own best interest if you are working alone to lay a lump of wood under the starter to support it while you undo the bolts (shown later). With the starter removed this is what you’ll be looking at.

This is the removed starter, I’ve added details to the picture so that you know the names of some of the parts for interest sake, at the edge of the photo you can make out the replacement starter which was taken from a wrecked early commodore motor, you can see that they are nearly exactly the same.

Here is a look at the Pinion Gear end of the old starter.

Here is a look at the end where the wiring is connected.

I am now installing the new starter, the top bolt was very difficult to get to but if you use a lump of wood to hold the starter like I mentioned previously then you can slip your hand in above the starter and push the bolt with one finger while trying to tighten it with the other hand and the spanner, it’s difficult but you should get it with a minimum amount of trouble.

Once the top bolt is in and is firm but not tight we can put the bottom bolt in and then tighten the two bolts to secure the starter, this image shows the new starter tightened into position.

Now we can put the wires back on and the job is done.

Diagnosis: The old starter was replaced because it wouldn’t let the car start, it would click a few times and nothing more, almost like a badly flat battery. Prior to the problems the starter would crank slowly, the battery was replaced but it was still a little slow, this was obviously a sign that it was on its way out, luckily when it did go the car was in the driveway and not somewhere far away.