Well, we ordered a starter through Murray's Discount Auto Parts....it was a Bosch, re manufactured by "USA Industries", completely in the USA, not India, thankfully. It was only $99.99 + 20 core, and it was spotless and judging by the packaging (which describes all of what they do/replace on them) it was an excellent purchase.

As for removing the old one, I put the car up on ramps (it was the '83)...took my 18" 1/2drive breaker bar with a 1/2 to 3/8 adapter and a 10mm 3/8 drive Allen socket on it, and fit it up in the space by the starter. I had turned the wheels all the way to lock-right, which gave plenty of space under there. I cleaned out the bolts with brake cleaner, inserted the allen socket + breaker bar and rev'd up the biceps Popped the upper bolt free in only a few seconds...wasn't very hard at all! I then proceeded to the lower bolt, which was harder, I really had to push on that one, my breaker bar started bending (just kidding )...and it finally popped free. I then removed the wires and bracket, and soon had the thing laying on the ground in all its oily rusty glory.

I then installed the new one in the reverse order, bolted it all up and got it all set, hooked the battery back up, glowed, turned the key and it started instantaneously. That starter has some giddyup! Needless to say, it works flawlessly, and the whole project only took about 2.8 hours + 1 hour to wash my arms off. Cheap too, not even $145 total...and we'll get $20 back for the core! so $125.

Went waaay better than I expected it too.

__________________
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