My car is a 2000 Grand Marquis LS that I received as a hand-me-down in 2008. Something on my "to do" list was learning how to remove the starter so that I might avoid expensive towing and repair bills if I ever got stuck somewhere. I got around to this recently and figured out how to remove the starter without breaking things off or using lots of extensions.
I happened to have a stubby ratchet whose handle is less than 3.5 inches long from the center of the socket. This fit perfectly on the two upper bolts, so that was half the problem. The other half was getting enough leverage. I saw a trick on a YouTube video (1A Auto's stabilizer link replacement video) where a wrench was used on the end of another wrench, and I figured this might work on a ratchet too. This worked great for the middle bolt.
For the top bolt, I was going to lengthen the ratchet handle by putting a deep socket over it and putting a short extension into the deep socket, but the deep socket was enough to allow me to loosen the top bolt with my hand without resorting to the wrench. There was no corrosion on this bolt, and it came out freely after it was broken loose.
I didn't actually have a problem with the starter, so I just put anti-seize on the bolts so they would not give me any grief when it matters.
I happened to have a stubby ratchet whose handle is less than 3.5 inches long from the center of the socket. This fit perfectly on the two upper bolts, so that was half the problem. The other half was getting enough leverage. I saw a trick on a YouTube video (1A Auto's stabilizer link replacement video) where a wrench was used on the end of another wrench, and I figured this might work on a ratchet too. This worked great for the middle bolt.
For the top bolt, I was going to lengthen the ratchet handle by putting a deep socket over it and putting a short extension into the deep socket, but the deep socket was enough to allow me to loosen the top bolt with my hand without resorting to the wrench. There was no corrosion on this bolt, and it came out freely after it was broken loose.
I didn't actually have a problem with the starter, so I just put anti-seize on the bolts so they would not give me any grief when it matters.
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