Fixing Starter Motor Squeal

[WYTSKY]

Hey guys,

Been a while since my last tutorial so thought it was time for another while I was fixing something.

Long story short, For the past 6 weeks now my starter motor has had a really loud squeal for the first 2 seconds of turning on the car and I was sick of it and worried something bad would eventually happen.

DISCLAIMER: This is how I fixed my squeal, yours may be more serious and need a replacement unit. I take no responsibility if someone attempts this and the results are not the same as mine. Also, none of the cog fins were bent in mine, meaning it had not been rubbing against the flywheel so I knew there was not going to be any damage putting it back in and reusing it.

Tools:

Torch - I guarantee it is necessary

A good socket set

A pair of hands that can get into VERY tight places

Lubricants and cleaning agents

Time required: 15-30mins for someone who has taken it off before, 1hr+ for someone who hasent. 15 mins of cleaning and another 30 mins of putting it back on.

Level of difficulty: Easy-Medium

1. Disconnect the battery as it is wired directly to the starter motor. For R33 that normally involves getting into the boot behind the carpet. Instead, I decided to disconnect the terminal that the starter motor connects directly to in the engine bay. It is under the fuse box lid located on the drivers side. Make sure you cover the lead so it doesn't touch anything, just to be safe

2. Find the Starter motor. It is located here

3. Remove this plastic cover on the solenoid and undo the bolt that holds the lead to it and disconnect the thin black wire as well. There should now be no wires connected to the starter motor and solenoid.

It is best to do this from the top of the car, not underneath.

4. Get underneath the car and only just loosen the bolt in the bottom left hand corner of this picture a tiny bit. This is because it is one of the two bolts that holds the starter motor to the bell housing and the other one is much harder to get to so this will take the pressure off the top one.

5. Now the top one. This one takes the most of your time. It is probably one of the hardest bolts I have ever had to get to on the Skyline. I managed to get it from on top, but whatever way works for you.

It is located just in front of the firewall towards the top of the bell housing that faces the front of the car. It took me 5 minutes just to get this clear pic.

If you are struggling, the way I did it is get onto the engine, put one knee on the drivers side strut tower, the other on the radiator support bar and looked right down here towards the ground. I then used my left arm and ripped 500 grams of skin off by jamming it all the way down there with my ratchet and a 14mm socket and took it off while watching it from the top.

6. That was the hardest part. Now undo the bottom bolt and remove the unit from the engine. I did it from underneath.

This is what you get. Very dirty.

7. Clean it up internally as best you can, I used a combo of degreaser and wd40 to clean it up. The problem with these though Is they get rid of grease and you do want some. Once it was as clean as I could get it I needed to Lube it. We had some Motul chain lube spare which is a thin grease, which is good for this application.

8. This is how it should look cleanish. You should be able to move it one way fairly easily, it will be a little stiff, the other way should be very very stiff if not movable at all. This is because it is a one way bearing.

9. Now put back in the reverse method of above. Once again I put the bottom bolt in first from undearneath, then got on top of the motor and did the top one, found it alot easier putting the unit back in then getting it out.

And your done! Hope this helped you guys.

Adam

BIG TIP: If you want to test it out of the car and see if it still squeals after being cleaned, get a car battery and hook it up to it for a few seconds. You could also hook it back into the car and hold it while it spins, just be careful.

[cheegar]

Ahh beautiful just as my starter motor is being a piece of shit some genius has made a tutorial for it

These tutorials make it ten times less frustrating to work on my car.

Cheers for the write dude

[89CAL]

just as a side note.... pulling that terminal off in the engine bay could result in shorting to chassis. You should always disconnect the negative terminal from the battery so that you remove the 'ground' circuit and you cant have wires still shorting to the chassis

other then that good write up, hopefully I'll never have to do it but its good to know for when it happens lol

[WYTSKY]

just as a side note.... pulling that terminal off in the engine bay could result in shorting to chassis. You should always disconnect the negative terminal from the battery so that you remove the 'ground' circuit and you cant have wires still shorting to the chassis

other then that good write up, hopefully I'll never have to do it but its good to know for when it happens lol

Yeh, honestly was not 100% sure but my way seemed to work if you are careful with the terminal. For me to get to my battery from the boot would take about 1.5-2 hours alone to remove amps mounted on a custom floating wall and all that, and I normally go through the back seat by removing the backseat and the plate behind it but it was raining outside and I was doing it in my garage where i can only open my door 1/3 of the way to get out so I couldn't pull out my backseat

glad you guys liked it.

[kjb_r33]

One further thing that should be noted, the bushes in these are sintered bronze bushes, meaning they are porous. They are soaked with oil before fitting as this is the only lube they get. In the link showing the picture below, it shows quite a lot of clutch dust stuck to the housing. This dust can get into the bush and soak the oil up. Its usually worse if the driver continually slips the clutch, either by riding it or slipping it a lot during take off.

picture

Edited August 23, 2010 by kjb_r33

[horrace]

i have my old one out and the new one in, but i cant get the top bolt started in the thread! its driving me f**king mad, any tips?

[sinistaGTR]

for the best result on this if your game is to pull it apart, clean it and grease it properly...not hard if your mechanically minded

[OMGGTR]

not much experience with starters screeching n shiz... but my 33gtrs one is spastic sounds like crap when u crank it and even after u let go for a split second it still does it .... since its got low comp and a bottom end knock i think ill just have a look into that now STARTER SKILLZ ERE I COME! lol thanks for the diy WYTSKY!

[WYTSKY]

One further thing that should be noted, the bushes in these are sintered bronze bushes, meaning they are porous. They are soaked with oil before fitting as this is the only lube they get. In the link showing the picture below, it shows quite a lot of clutch dust stuck to the housing. ....

picture

That is probably from when I turboed the car and the factory n/a clutch went in 4 hrs

not much experience with starters screeching n shiz... but my 33gtrs one is spastic sounds like crap when u crank it and even after u let go for a split second it still does it .... since its got low comp and a bottom end knock i think ill just have a look into that now STARTER SKILLZ ERE I COME! lol thanks for the diy WYTSKY!

You welcome

[ARTZ]

this is a long shot but I got my starter motor in bits but i cant get this piece out..

its the last bit, im pretty sure that white ring should pop out but I cant get it to budge..

heres the rest of the bits if anyone is interested

also the only grease i have is castrol High temp wheel bearing grease and a can wd40 3in1 lubricant which is for chains and stuff but its very thin

http://www.3inone.com/products/ptfe-spray-lubricant/

[GTRsean]

You have to take the white plastic lever fork out first. It's what the solenoid pulls on to move the gear out to engage the flywheel.

Once you get the fork out, it should come apart.

[ARTZ]

thats what i thought as well but there is no way to get the fork out..

its like the whole assembly just need to slide upwards and out but i cant get it to budge..

Do you know how to get the fork out?

this is interesting, 626 starter motor is identical..to mine..

[GTRsean]

Hit the end of the shaft with a punch, with the housing secured in a vice.

Sounds like the plastic outer case is stuck in the casing. The whole shebang should come out then.

[ARTZ]

couldnt hit the end with a shaft becaue it has a cap on top..

What i did do is soak it in wd40 fro the night..still wouldnt budge..turned it upside down and shook it like crazy cause the wheel kept bouncing i guess it slowly tapped itself out till it fell on the table

Thing is packed with clutch dust though, i think it will appreciate the clean

[ARTZ]

still squeals bad when cold, but seems alright after that

[gts25t4door]

The easiest way to get to the top bolt is to have about 2 long extentions on the ratchet and a bendy adaptor behind the socket, then push it in from the front. I managed to get it on there first go, but that might have been pot luck. I had the old one out and the new one in in under an hour.

[ColdFusion]

I got mine out easy and it was on a 32 (RB25) which means less space. First unbolted the fueI line bracket and fuel filter brackets and pushed them down and forwards, used a deep socket and a short extension (about 5cm) and put my right arm down between the strut tower and under the plenum while looking down just behind the plenum with a small torch. Socket on and push downwards. May have to unplug and move the injector harness a bit, but this way did not take long at all.

[BstewyR33]

bit of a topic revival - the whining sound that comes from it - would you get it from starting up the car, then it stops, then it starts back up again?

I'm starting to get a high pitched squeal on intermittent start ups - wracking my head as to what is actually the cause, but then also after driving for a while the sound will come back and then go. it sounds like an angry bearing noise. 

Edited June 11, 2018 by BstewyR33

[GTofuS-T]

6 minutes ago, BstewyR33 said:

bit of a topic revival - the whining sound that comes from it - would you get it from starting up the car, then it stops, then it starts back up again?

I'm starting to get a high pitched squeal on intermittent start ups - wracking my head as to what is actually the cause, but then also after driving for a while the sound will come back and then go. it sounds like an angry bearing noise. 

Have you checked your belts? What you're describing sounds more like a loose belt

[BstewyR33]

will check into that tonight. thanks mate!