How to Replace Starter 1996-98 Pontiac Sunfire

Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet.

Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing or maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20-plus years' experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly. That's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.

In this video we'll be showing you how to replace a starter in this 1997 Pontiac Sunfire with a 2.2 liter. This is the same for many 1995 to 2005 Caveliers and Sunfires with the starter that bolts from the bottom rather than from the back of the engine. The tools you'll need are pretty much just some basic 8 to 15 mm wrenches and socket and ratchet with various extensions to get in and out of the places you need to get to.

First, using an either 8 mm or a 5/16 wrench you want to disconnect the positive battery cable. With the battery disconnected, you now have a 13 mm nut that you want to remove here and then a 10 mm nut that you want to remove right there. The trouble you can run into when taking these wires off, and you can see somebody ran into it here, is there is a splice because basically when you're trying to remove this nut here it's all frozen together and the stud is just turning in the solenoid. That appears to be an 8 mm nut there on the shaft. I have an 8 mm wrench here and I'm going to use my 10 mm socket and ratchet and the black wire is the ground that hooks to the body of the starter motor. This is a Torx bit. I'm going to remove this now. A T25 Torx screw. I'm going to push it right in there really good. I'm just going to put that screw back in for keeping it.

To get the starter out we're going to remove this brace here first, which is three 13 mm bolts there, there and there. Then we're going to remove these two 10 mm bolts here and here. That will allow us access to this 15 mm bolt here, this 15 mm bolt here and then the last one we're going to remove, actually we're going to remove this 13 mm bolt here. We will remove this one first and then we'll remove these 15 mm bolts here and here and the starter will come down. Now as I finish up removing that bolt I will pull the starter down, and it comes right out. There's your starter out of the car.

Now here on the bench basically you want to remove this bracket, which is two 10 mm bolts. That one broke off. You remove this bracket. Basically you can see here, here's the new starter from 1A Auto and the old starter. Everything is all the same. We are going to mount this bracket. The new starter came with a bolt on this side. We're actually going to steal this bolt from our old one. We will swap those out, do the same thing. Then this bracket goes on like that. We're going to put them on, but we're going to leave them a little bit loose so that we can put it all together. Then we'll tighten the bracket up once everything is mounted in the car. Our new starter with the bracket; put it up in there. Make sure all the wires are kind of out of the way. Push it up more. My longest bolt. Just kind of keep working it until I work that bolt in. Now it's threaded in a little bit so that will stay. The next bolt, push it up in, get it started. Take our bracket bolt. We're going to tighten up that bracket bolt some. Tighten up our starter bolts just preliminarily. Our torque wrench sent to 40-foot pounds to tighten up these bolts. Tighten up this bracket bolt, and it should be about 40-foot pounds as well, but I'm just going to get it tight. It's not that crucial that it's the perfect torque.

Now I can tighten up these bracket bolts here. These bolts you just want snug. They don't have to be extremely tight at all. Before I do this one, you may notice your starter may be a little different. The starter doesn't have the provision to put this strap on. I'm going to hook it right to the end here. Now we can see well enough here. I'm just going to hook all this stuff on. Here's my small solenoid stud. I can put this red/purple wire in there. Then my large stud has the three wires going to it. Tighten up our little one here.

Now, here in the interest of time I'm just going to speed through here; we're reinstalling the brace that runs from the front of the engine to the back. Then we'll also speed through putting the two 10 mm bolts on that hold the transmission cover plate to the bell housing. Now we'll lower it down, connect the battery and fire it up and make sure everything is working good.

We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet. Please feel free to call us toll free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the internet and in person. Thank you.
Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet.

Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing or maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20-plus years' experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly. That's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.

In this video we'll be showing you how to replace a starter in this 1997 Pontiac Sunfire with a 2.2 liter. This is the same for many 1995 to 2005 Caveliers and Sunfires with the starter that bolts from the bottom rather than from the back of the engine. The tools you'll need are pretty much just some basic 8 to 15 mm wrenches and socket and ratchet with various extensions to get in and out of the places you need to get to.

First, using an either 8 mm or a 5/16 wrench you want to disconnect the positive battery cable. With the battery disconnected, you now have a 13 mm nut that you want to remove here and then a 10 mm nut that you want to remove right there. The trouble you can run into when taking these wires off, and you can see somebody ran into it here, is there is a splice because basically when you're trying to remove this nut here it's all frozen together and the stud is just turning in the solenoid. That appears to be an 8 mm nut there on the shaft. I have an 8 mm wrench here and I'm going to use my 10 mm socket and ratchet and the black wire is the ground that hooks to the body of the starter motor. This is a Torx bit. I'm going to remove this now. A T25 Torx screw. I'm going to push it right in there really good. I'm just going to put that screw back in for keeping it.

To get the starter out we're going to remove this brace here first, which is three 13 mm bolts there, there and there. Then we're going to remove these two 10 mm bolts here and here. That will allow us access to this 15 mm bolt here, this 15 mm bolt here and then the last one we're going to remove, actually we're going to remove this 13 mm bolt here. We will remove this one first and then we'll remove these 15 mm bolts here and here and the starter will come down. Now as I finish up removing that bolt I will pull the starter down, and it comes right out. There's your starter out of the car.

Now here on the bench basically you want to remove this bracket, which is two 10 mm bolts. That one broke off. You remove this bracket. Basically you can see here, here's the new starter from 1A Auto and the old starter. Everything is all the same. We are going to mount this bracket. The new starter came with a bolt on this side. We're actually going to steal this bolt from our old one. We will swap those out, do the same thing. Then this bracket goes on like that. We're going to put them on, but we're going to leave them a little bit loose so that we can put it all together. Then we'll tighten the bracket up once everything is mounted in the car. Our new starter with the bracket; put it up in there. Make sure all the wires are kind of out of the way. Push it up more. My longest bolt. Just kind of keep working it until I work that bolt in. Now it's threaded in a little bit so that will stay. The next bolt, push it up in, get it started. Take our bracket bolt. We're going to tighten up that bracket bolt some. Tighten up our starter bolts just preliminarily. Our torque wrench sent to 40-foot pounds to tighten up these bolts. Tighten up this bracket bolt, and it should be about 40-foot pounds as well, but I'm just going to get it tight. It's not that crucial that it's the perfect torque.

Now I can tighten up these bracket bolts here. These bolts you just want snug. They don't have to be extremely tight at all. Before I do this one, you may notice your starter may be a little different. The starter doesn't have the provision to put this strap on. I'm going to hook it right to the end here. Now we can see well enough here. I'm just going to hook all this stuff on. Here's my small solenoid stud. I can put this red/purple wire in there. Then my large stud has the three wires going to it. Tighten up our little one here.

Now, here in the interest of time I'm just going to speed through here; we're reinstalling the brace that runs from the front of the engine to the back. Then we'll also speed through putting the two 10 mm bolts on that hold the transmission cover plate to the bell housing. Now we'll lower it down, connect the battery and fire it up and make sure everything is working good.

We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet. Please feel free to call us toll free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the internet and in person. Thank you.