BRIDGEMILL
Junior Member
- Messages
- 43
Well, here goes another nightmare story for the white glove OEM crowd.
Starter on my 2013 Gran Tourismo was intermittent- would work fine for a while then whenever I was away from home it would quit. After 1 tow truck expense back home I lifted it up enough to crawl under and find the location. Tried the old whack with a hammer repair and it started working, so figured it was brushes sticking or worn. Maserati wanted 800.00 for a new starter and the mysterious "however long it takes" more to change it, so naturally I began to figure how I could do it myself. It's tight under there, but the main cable and lead to the solenoid are easy enough to get to if you remove a couple heat shield bolts and pull the shield back with a bungie cord. The metal support bracket can be removed with just the right amount of twist and turn action. That leaves the 3 starter mounting bolts- bottom one easy- middle one hidden inside the bell housing by a cover plate, but easy enough- top one- Aaaargh- almost impossible to get to- tried all sorts of sockets and universal joints, but could not get on that bolt. Could reach it with a 13 MM wrench bent at 90 degrees, but due to the space could not turn the wrench to the proper angle to fit over the bolt head. Found an old box ratchet in my junk tools and cut the head off and welded it to a straight bar- also found a 1/4 drive 13mm socket which had a thinner profile and welded a 6mm nut to it which fit into the ratchet end. Now I had a 90 degree socket that I could position to grab the bolt head- but- when cutting the ratchet end off the wrench I had lost the spring that keeps the ratchet pawl engaged. So I borrowed one of my granddaughters little elastic hair ribbon ties and wrapped it around the pawl to hold it in place. Got the socket on the bolt head and carefully put the pressure and it began to flex and just before I ran out of space to go, the bolt broke loose. Now just a tedious removal process. Then just another twisting and turning process and the starter came out. Once on the bench I could see it was marked DENSO, a big manufacturer of all sorts of products. Removed the 2 long bolts holding the stator housing and 2 screws holding the brush plate and voila- just as I suspected the brushes were not only shot, but frozen in their holders- from the corrosion in there it was obvious that this thing had been under water at some point. There is a guy I know who repairs starters and alternators- old school little shop with a counter full of books of all sorts of parts-took the starter to him and he thumbed through his pages and found the brush plate assembly and the replaceable solenoid contacts. For 50.00 he cleaned the armature, installed the brushes and contacts. Back home and some more twisting and turning and the starter was back in place. Replaced the top bolt with a socket head cap screw which was easily accessible with an extension and universal joint.
Starter on my 2013 Gran Tourismo was intermittent- would work fine for a while then whenever I was away from home it would quit. After 1 tow truck expense back home I lifted it up enough to crawl under and find the location. Tried the old whack with a hammer repair and it started working, so figured it was brushes sticking or worn. Maserati wanted 800.00 for a new starter and the mysterious "however long it takes" more to change it, so naturally I began to figure how I could do it myself. It's tight under there, but the main cable and lead to the solenoid are easy enough to get to if you remove a couple heat shield bolts and pull the shield back with a bungie cord. The metal support bracket can be removed with just the right amount of twist and turn action. That leaves the 3 starter mounting bolts- bottom one easy- middle one hidden inside the bell housing by a cover plate, but easy enough- top one- Aaaargh- almost impossible to get to- tried all sorts of sockets and universal joints, but could not get on that bolt. Could reach it with a 13 MM wrench bent at 90 degrees, but due to the space could not turn the wrench to the proper angle to fit over the bolt head. Found an old box ratchet in my junk tools and cut the head off and welded it to a straight bar- also found a 1/4 drive 13mm socket which had a thinner profile and welded a 6mm nut to it which fit into the ratchet end. Now I had a 90 degree socket that I could position to grab the bolt head- but- when cutting the ratchet end off the wrench I had lost the spring that keeps the ratchet pawl engaged. So I borrowed one of my granddaughters little elastic hair ribbon ties and wrapped it around the pawl to hold it in place. Got the socket on the bolt head and carefully put the pressure and it began to flex and just before I ran out of space to go, the bolt broke loose. Now just a tedious removal process. Then just another twisting and turning process and the starter came out. Once on the bench I could see it was marked DENSO, a big manufacturer of all sorts of products. Removed the 2 long bolts holding the stator housing and 2 screws holding the brush plate and voila- just as I suspected the brushes were not only shot, but frozen in their holders- from the corrosion in there it was obvious that this thing had been under water at some point. There is a guy I know who repairs starters and alternators- old school little shop with a counter full of books of all sorts of parts-took the starter to him and he thumbed through his pages and found the brush plate assembly and the replaceable solenoid contacts. For 50.00 he cleaned the armature, installed the brushes and contacts. Back home and some more twisting and turning and the starter was back in place. Replaced the top bolt with a socket head cap screw which was easily accessible with an extension and universal joint.
