Hey folks,

Well, my GMC V6 converted 914 is on its way to me (being shipped). The PO says the car is having some hot start problems, so I thought I would replace the starter with a hgh torque model.

My problem is: I'm new to wrenching. I thought this would be a good thing to cut my teeth on.

What part should I order? I want to make sure I get one that will fit. To give you a glimpse of my mechanical ignorance, I understand that the starter connects to the flywheel, but is the flywheel in the conversion going to be Porsche or Chevy? Pretty sure it must be Porsche, but I need to ask.

Is this an easy bolt-on for a newbie like me, or should I seek professional help?

Any advice in picking the part and getting it to fit?

Light weight would be a bonus, but solving the hot start and turning a V6 is the most important. Good price helps too. ;-)

Time to buy a floor jack and some jackstands. Heh.

Ignorantly yours,

John

if it's the car I'm thinking about, nice score !!!

It should be just a standard 914 starter or direct replacment unit. 2 bolts hold it on, just make sure you disconnect the battery to be safe. The instructions in the Haynes manual should be close except for the top bolt, but you'll be able to figure that out.

Thanks Mueller,

I was thinking that I would go for a high torque model since I was at it anyway. Any tips there?

For those of you who buy high-torque starters, which one is good?

I'm relieved to hear it sounds like an easy bolt-in. I will be sure to disconnect the battery. Great tip!

I bought the white V6 conversion from Ryan (notyers here). The license on the car says "NOT YERS" but when I first saw his name here, I read it "NO TYERS." :-)

Should be here in less than a week!

John

Update: Got the new starter in, replaced ignition switch, and replaced battery. Now everything is starting as it should. Now to reassemble the key ignition. Presently starting the car off the ignition switch with a screwdriver.

For the newbies out there, here's a lesson learned:

To remove your starter, there are are two fastening points. The top is a nut, only really accessible from the top through the engine lid. The bottom is a bolt, accessible from the bottom of the car (jacked up and blocked).

Remove the top bolt first. It is by far the hardest of the two to get to, and if the starter is flopping around because you took out the bottom bolt first, the job is twice as hard as it should be.

In my case, the nut and the bolt were also different sizes, requiring two different wrenches. Don't be surprised if this is the case.

After I got mine out, I put a touch of lubrication on the nut for the top fastener to get it to thread easier (this one is a bugger to get on and off). Not too much, just a little so you don't have to kill yourself).

Wiring connections are easy once you look at your removed starter.

Good luck, and thanks to everyone who helped me with this....

Now, I need a new starter for my other car (having mysterious hot start problems). But now that I've done one, the next should be pretty easy.

John

Hi John,

Glad to hear you got the starter sorted on your wife's car.

Did you get a car for yourself yet? We need to see more pics of the V6!

Bill P.

Bill,

Didn't you attend the iHop breakfast a couple of months ago where Ryan brought this very clean white, stock bodied V6? Maybe they're "melting" together...

Felix

Hi Felix,

Nope...I wasn't at that breakfast.

I just like the pics!

Bill P.

Yo Bill!

Yes, I did get another car for myself (to be technical, Stacie bought this in retailiation for me buying her the V6). We bought each other cars for our 20th anniversary.

Mine is much more track oriented, but I love driving it around town. Needs a LOT of cosmetics, but it is FUN. See my Want To Buy thread for a couple of cruddy pics of my car.

So far, Stacie's car has overheated (no radiator overflow bottle... now how did I miss that?), and I think we have sorted out the starting problem. Brake lights weren't working, and I just fixed that (turned out to be just simple bulb replacement), the Tachometer does not work (still need to troubleshoot this), and there is hot air blowing in from the front trunk into the passenger cabin (need to block some holes and investigate running the coolant hoses under the car per renegade's design.... presently running through heating ducts).

My car needs cosmetics, but is now experiencing some hot start problems. After I"ve been driving around a bit, when I try to restart, I just get a single CLICK. You think this might be a bad/old solenoid? I'm thinking I might just replace the starter with a newer high torque model.

Also, I let a friend drive the car yesterday. We had a blast, and he just hammered the transmission and drove very aggressively (much more than I do). The car is also VERY low, and he bottomed out going into my driveway. Now, today, the car pops out of 4th gear when I apply power. I can hold it in 4th by holding onto the shift knob and pushing it forward with slight pressure, but if I let go and give it any power, it pops out. Not sure what happened, but I think my buddy broke something. Need to troubleshoot that as well.

Sounds like a lot of problems, but I am having a BLAST fiddling around, fixing, ordering parts, making them better. What drives me on: The dream that one day I will have a well-sorted, strong running, reliable and fun car (cars) to drive without worry.

I'm learning a lot about the cars, and it is extremely helpful to have two of them, so I can see how one is set up as a reference for the other.

Wiring on the V6 (Stacie's car) also looks to be a bit hacked, so I need to sort it out and clean it up.

Sorry for the long post. Great to hear from you.

John