How do you Replace starter on a 1994 Nissan pickup?

Answer 1

My repair manual said to remove the two bolts and the electric wires and pull it down out of the engine. That's an extreme simplification! Mine has a 5 spd and 4 cyl engine. Disconnect the negative battery post first. I removed the entire air cleaner ass'y, along with the fuel filter mounting bracket so I could get to the top 14mm bolt on the starter with my 14mm closed-end wrench, and turned it about 1/16 of a turn over and over until it got loose enough that I could get my fingers onto the bolt and back it out. I left the bottom bolt tight so I would not be fighting the weight of the starter, and now I was ready to take out that bolt. I removed it from under the truck with a 3/8 drive ratchet and although it was easier than the first bolt, you can only get one hand up there at a time, so it's tough. Now the starter was loose and I turned it so that I could take off the hot wire with a ratchet and extension and pulled the blade connector off the other connection. I couldn't get the starter lowered down from under the truck or up from the top, so I took the clutch slave cylinder loose from the transmission (two bolts) as the hydraulic line was preventing the starter from coming down into my hand. Once I did that, I took out the starter. Put it back together in reverse procedure, but after putting the bottom bolt in the starter, tighten it up to hold it in place so you can slide the top bolt into the hole. I bought a "finger ratchet" this time from Northern tool and put it onto my 6" extension and 14mm socket and slid it over the top bolt and was able to turn the bolt this way, from under the truck, until it was snug. It's too tight under there to use a regular ratchet. Then I tightened it down with my 14mm closed end wrench. This entire procedure probably took me over 4 hours, but I could do it a lot faster now that I know a few tricks.