xjarhead1999

so right now im changing my starter. ive been working at it for about 2 1/2 hours so far and nowhere near done. seems like a long time just for a starter doesnt it. well ive long tube headers which would make it a little more difficult yes, but thats not my problem. well it is, but not the main problem. ya see my headers, h-pipe, mufflers, everything is welded. i knew it was when i bought the car and planned on correcting it anyway. the headers are pretty old. the h-pipe on back is fairly new, but like i said its welded and i didnt like that. well here i am trying to figure out how to get the starter out. its unhook and unbolted, that only took about 15 minutes. i spent about half hour trying to fish the dang thing out, and the rest of the time just unbolting the header from the engine. well theres another story, out of the 8 bolts, 3 of them are round hex bolts(2 different sized hexes at that) and the other 5 bolts are 3 different head sizes. the threading is the same though, which is good. i had to take a break before i started kicking the car. now i got 3 more bolts on this one side and if i cant make it move out at least enough to fish out the starter im gonna try to unbold the other header and try to drop the whole setup. i have a feeling thats what im gonna have to do. i wish i knew i was gonna have to do this tuesday. i would have went ahead and ordered new headers, h-pipe, and cats and just cut these out. i kept putting off the exhaust because my local muffler place wont do my exhaust for me. no converters, he wont do it. only place that will welds so bad id be better off using jb weld on it.

sorry to rant, just gotta cool off some.

onefast2002ss

Your between a block and a hard place on this one i wish you could have some info but i have never seen the entire exhaust welded

87GT5.0

sorry to hear that your going through so much **** man, but you got GET ER DONE

88PatrolCar

Once you have unbolted the header did you try bending it out of the way with a pry bar, you should be able to push it over an inch or two, that may be just enough

xjarhead1999

well ive tried everything i can. ive unbolted both headers and pushed them down as far as i can and up as far as i can. i've pushed them to both sides. nothing will give me the room i need. these headers are block huggers. i even managed to cause one of the tubes to start to colapse. ive thrown in the towel for today. ive been up for well over 24 hours now(i work 12 1/2 hour night shift) and im tired. going to get up early in the morning and take a saws-all to the h-pipe so that i can move the header the way i need. then gonna somehow "bandaid" the h-pipe to do me for a few days until my new exhaust comes in. going to go with bbk shorties. that way i wont ever have to worry about headers being in the way of anything like this again. i like the long tubes, but damn they got on my nerves today.

my original plan was to change the starter, move my battery back to the front, install the msd, and do some tinkering with the tb and iac. then tomorrow go out for a nice long drive and enjoy the car some. guess that wont be happening now.

wow. i spent about 7 hours TRYING to change a starter and took half my engine apart. busted a few nuckles, got a few scratches and cuts, and have nothing to show for it but some dirty hands. times like this i almost wish i didnt buy the car.

fastpony

if you or a friend have a torch you can actually detach the parts that are welded on.....my friend is a welder and he has done various things on my car with the torch....heat up the weld and you might be able to bend back the header....I can't say I have heard of someone who had had their entire exhaust system welded on....sucks!

Jeff
project 89 GT resurrection

black89gt

dude you gotta take your passenger side header off! i was installing my LT's on my 89 vert and dman **** that was hard! i had to ull teh whole tranny out and everythign to get them in! MOTHER *****!

xjarhead1999

they were welded onto the h-pipe. i knew they needed to come off, just wasnt a way to do it. i cut them in half. ive ordered a new hpipe and headers. this time im going with shorties. after all this crap i had to deal with on long tubes i will never put a set on my mustang.