I removed the engine upper deck and access doors next. I found the best way is to lift it up enough to slide it off the back of the Ferret. It is not too heavy for two people to carry even with the doors left on it. I did not want to create any opening or closing problems with the doors by driving the pins out. So far I have decided not to remove the exhaust pipes unless I absolutely have to later on. After all it has already been said that you could remove the starter without removing the exhaust pipes even though the manual says to remove them.

Next I spent a couple hours removing the tachometer cable that was attached to the engine above the starter like the manual said to. No wrench was made that will fit the nut at the accessible angle available and the space available. So with big hands I proceeded turning the nut about 1/8 of an inch at a time. The wrench had to be reversed after each 1/8 of an inch. I believe that it will be harder to replace than to remove. At least it is already in the hole when you remove it. Some advice here. Tie a hefty nylon string to your wrench and secure it someplace before starting. If you drop the wrench it will go under the motor where you can not reach it. My grown son laughed at me when I tied the string to the wrench, but quit laughing when he dropped the wrench just seconds after starting on the nut. It did go under the motor, but we were able to retrieve it with the string.

We now removed the power and control cables from the starter. This is the only thing beside the motor deck that went well. Be sure to mark them if not marked so that they are replaced in the right polarity. The top power cable or actually the left one depending how you look at it had a white band around it for marking the polarity. It did not look factory.

Next we attempted to remove the bottom bolt holding the starter to the motor. We chose this one first in order not to have any pressure on it (weight of the starter) if the others were removed first. Well it has been hours and so far we were not successful. Lots of cussing and many cuts and scrapes later we have given up for the night. How in the hell can you remove something that you can not see or feel or find for that matter? I am a very unhappy camper. There is a design flaw here. Had I designed it, you could have gotten it out a hell of a lot easier and without pulling the motor too. If that bottom bolt was lowered just enough to clear the starter (less than 1 inch) then a bolt with a 12 inch long head would stick out beyond the starter and you could just put a wrench on it and remove it. If you didn't want the 12 inch head then you could just use a 12 inch extension on your ratchet and easily remove it. Like it is, the bolt is recessed above the diameter of the starter. I am looking at the new starter to see where it is and I still can't find it, see it or touch it. It is now after Midnight. In the morning I plan on going to a tool store (50 miles away) and look for a miracle tool or something. I refuse to pull the engine. I don't have the tools or place to do it.

Well we started fresh this morning by driving 50 miles to pick up some special tools at Sears that we figured would work on the removal of the starter. None of them worked. We tried all kinds of tools that almost would go around corners and still nothing worked. There just is not any room to do anything. After 4 hours of hard work we did succeed in removing the starter.

First thing you should know is that you really need to remove the breather pipe that is bolted to the motor above and to the right of where the tachometer screws into the motor. This pipe runs down and then across to the left and down again. The manual does not mention this pipe in the removal sequence. I don't understand why. Once it is removed and once tachometer cable is removed it gives you unobstructed access to the starter which means that you can now use tools on the one and only top bolt, but this bolt is the last one to remove. We removed the fuel tank petcock cover plate on the bottom of the hull of the Ferret. This finally gave us access to the bottom and side bolt of the starter. There was no room for any tools that were normal. By the way the bolts in a starter are 9/16 size. Ended up using 5 inch long (short) 12 point 9/16 wrench. Bent the closed end to the left some and down and up some to form a kind of step looking thing and it then did what was necessary to fit and we removed the bolts.

The exhaust pipes that mounted on the hull side had to be removed to create a hole large enough to extract the starter.

Upon inspection, we could not see anything wrong with the gear on the flywheel ......

....or anything wrong with the starter so it must be electrical and on the inside.

The new starter went on quite fast compared to taking it off. Experience is everything. We were experts by now and it only took 30 minutes to put it back on and that included the bad bottom bolt. We got everything put back and was ready to give the starter a crank. Well you could hear it try to engage the flywheel, but it just would not engage. Sounded like teeth grinding but would not engage. I was feeling like I was about ready to be sick by now. Then I decided to try to help the starter out by turning the hand crank about a quarter of an inch at a time while trying to start the Ferret with the starter. Sooner or later the teeth must line up. After several tries the starter finally engaged and started the Ferret. It sounded like hell, but each time it got better and better except for the times that it did not want to disengage. I hope that all it needs is breaking in. Maybe the parts will wear to fit each other or what ever is the problem wears and fixes itself. Since this is a factory rebuilt starter I don't know what to say. I do know that there is no adjustment on the starter being mounted. I don't know how long the starter has set on a shelf somewhere either. Could be as long as 40 years I guess??

I hope that I never have to do this again and you may want to save these instructions on how to remove and replace a Ferret starter without pulling the engine.

1. Remove upper engine deck in total. No need to remove doors and cause a door problem. Two people can handle the deck OK.

2. Disconnect 24 volt ground at the battery.

3. Disconnect cables at starter. Tie string on them and raise them high as possible out of the way and tie off.

4. Remove breather pipe being careful not to destroy gasket. The manual never mentions this step, but it is necessary if you don't pull the engine.

5. Disconnect tachometer cable from engine block just above starter.

6. Remove exhaust pipe from body and two loose pipes. Do not remove any exhaust components bolted to engine.

7. Do not remove top starter bolt at this time. This is the last bolt to be removed.

8. Remove access plate to right side gas tank drain plug to have access to bottom of starter.

9. You will need a 9/16 inch 12 point box end wrench that that is no longer than 5 inches. If you don't have one you will have to cut one off so that it will be no longer than 5 inches. Then bend the box end to the left about as much as you can bend your head to the left. Then bend the box end so that it kind of forms a step. Go across then down and then across. This will take some experimenting to get it right. Once you try to put the wrench on the bottom starter bolt it will become obvious how you must bend the wrench. Save this wrench for future use as it is now a required item in your kit.

10. Remove the bottom bolt first. Breaking it loose with a short wrench and no space is very hard. Being able to only move the bolt a 1/8 of an inch or less at a time and having to change the wrench position again and again over and over is normal.

11. Remove the middle bolt next.

12. Remove the top bolt last and now you can remove the starter.

13. Replace starter by reversing the process.