I think my starter is dying. When I start it and it's turned over I hear fast paced ticking for a split second. I called napa to see about prices and described the sound and symptoms and he said that its consistsnt. He reccomended I look at the flywheel for damaged teeth, I did and the corners look like they are starting to get rounded/damage.

Icing on the cake is when it didn't wanna start tonight, I could hear the gas pump and I had power as my radio, dash and whatnot turned on. Just not to the starter.

Does anyone kno how tough of a job this is to replace? Looks fairly simple, undo some bolts and slide it off. Is this true? Ball park on time?

BTW, it's a manual trans.

 

If dash lights are off then remove and clean battery terminals, both battery terminals.

As for the starter, yes the bendix drive or solenoid could be going out, these push out and then retract the starter motors gear from the flywheel gear.
If starter motor gear fails to retract all the way it will cause ticking noise, and can damage flywheel gears if not fixed.

It isn't time consuming if you have the right tools, 1 hour maybe for first timer.

Disconnect battery<<<!!!!!!!!!!!

On the back of the starter motor will be two wires, the large wire going to the battery's positive terminal and a smaller wire going to the Key switch.
Remove both of these.
There should be two bolts holding the starter motor to the bell housing/transmission
One of these may also have a large cable going to battery's negative terminal, it needs to be put back there with new starter motor.

Remove these two bolts and then pull out the starter motor

 

Ok, that's what I was thinking.

 

Starter jobs shouldn't be too hard. A really nice thing to have is ramps. Much more stable than using a jack and jack stands. With ramps you can lift a truck a foot or more in a manner of seconds. Pop her in reverse, shut down, lock the parking brake, and get to work. Make sure you use the appropriate sized sockets on these bolts. Using a metric socket on a SAE bolt, even if fitment is close, could spell trouble for you. Using an easy out on a rounded starter bolt is suicide-worthy.

Good luck OP.

 

Ok, I'm in a pickle. I got the starter off the trans but can't get it past my engine, front differential or up because of the frame/exhaust manifold.

How do I get it out? Which is the best/easiest way?

 

Never did a starter on the 4.0l SOHC, my 4.0l OHV starter just wiggled out

I don't think you should have to do this but you can always jack up the frame, differential/front axle will stay the same height, that should give you some clearance.

 

How would jacking the frame keep the diff from moving? The diff attaches to the frame. They move as one.

 

Job done.

Ltr

 

Good work.

No, axle/differential is connected to frame by springs or torsion bars, the frame will go up a few inches before the axle will start to move up

 

You realize your TTB and my IFS are different? From what I saw under there the diff looks like it's attaches to the frame with brackets. The only thing that flexes under there is my axles.

 

Sorry, yes, independent front suspension(IFS) would have a fixed differential and axles would be on springs.

So how did you get it out?

 

Wiggled. Same for getting the new in

 

told ya it'd work lol

 

Shut up!

Lol