1995 3000GT VR-4: Starter Replacement

These instructions apply to a 1995 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4, but are easily transferable to any model/year of 3000GT or Dodge Stealth.



The Procedure

Disconnect Negative Battery Terminal
 
  As with most service procedures involving your car's electrical system, you should disconnect the negative terminal of your battery for safety. However, unlike some other procedures, you really need to disconnect it for this procedure. You will be disconnecting a large (4ga) wire that is not fused and directly connected to your battery. With an unfused 4ga wire connected to your battery, you have enough amperage to meld/weld metal! Make sure you disconnect the negative terminal of your battery. The OEM terminals use 10mm nuts, and as you can see from the picture, I have wing-nut terminals for convenient disconnects.

 

Remove Front Warm-up Catalytic Converter
 
  Depending on what downpipe setup you have on your car, you either need to remove the front warm-up catalytic converter or remove the whole downpipe. I had my ek2 Development warm-up cat replacement pipe installed, so I only removed that part. The gaskets listed above are the ones you'd need if you have all OEM parts on your car and need to remove the whole downpipe. Also, if your gaskets are in really good shape, you may not need to replace them.

 

Remove Starter Heat Shield
 
  There are two 12mm bolts that fasten the heat shield for the starter. I got one of them with a 12mm deep socket and the other with a regular 12mm socket on a 3" extension bar.

 

Disconnect Starter Solenoid Wire
 
  Disconnect the small black connector toward the front of the starter.

 

Disconnect Main Starter Wire
 
  There's a 12mm nut that fastens the main starter power wire to the starter assembly. Again, just to be sure, check that the negative terminal of your battery is disconnected before you mess with this wire.

 

Unbolt Starter
 
  There are two 14mm bolts that hold the starter to the engine. I found it much easier to use a universal joint to access these bolts, and I also used a cheater bar on my wrench to minimize the chance of bashing my knuckles when I first broke the bolts free. If you're having trouble locating these bolts, look at your replacement starter to see where the bolts attach to the starter.

 

Compare Old And New Starters
 

  Compare the two starters to make sure they basically look the same and that the new one will bolt up to the car correctly. For the lower two rows, the old starter is on the right and the new one is on the left.

 

Bolt Everything Back On
  There's nothing really special about bolting everything back on; it all goes back on just like it came off. The torque spec on the 14mm bolts for the starter is 65 ft*lbs. Also, you may want to put some anti-sieze compound on the studs for the downpipe before you put the nuts back on.

 

Test New Starter
  Double-check everything to be sure that you haven't forgotten anything and that you don't have any leftover parts. Start the car and make sure everything works. I found that my rebuilt starter makes a bit more noise than my original OEM one, but it's been a couple of weeks and it seems to be working fine.

 




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Last Modified Mon May 17 2004 14:56:33 Pacific Daylight Time