I'll try to make this as short as possible. Recently I've been driving the old green beast around after years of it lying dormant in the garage. It runs ok, maybe a tad rich, but the starter started going almost immediately after I got the thing registered. So I bought a new starter and began to take the downpipe off. I've got a stillen dp with those gay o2 sensor bungs which have bolts in them and since I drive a 1st gen; I have no use for them, but as many of you stillen dp owner's probably know you have to take the rear bolt out in order to gain access to one of the rear nuts that holds the exhaust onto the headers. I got the 2 nuts off the front pretty easy and the easy rear one came off with a little grunting and little blood, but I couldn't get that o2 sensor bolt to come out. It started coming out but I got pissed off and just cranked the fuck out of it and wound up rounding it off.....

which brings me to my question. Is it possible to drop the tcase while the dp is still on? I'd like to do this so I can dremel the o2 sensor bolt off... you can kinda get a dremel up there with the tcase on but it's not easy and that's a thick bolt.

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rob r.

Some aftermarket downpipes do allow you to change the starter without removal. The tcase would probably be possible with the right tools. I've not had experience with your specific pipe. One way to find out: try it.

If the objective is to remove the starter....

If you don't have a heat shield on starter, you should be able to remove
without taking off downpipe. If you do have the shield, then downpipe most
likely will have to come off.

I never take that bung out - and yes, Stillen does suck with the "fits any gen downpipes...". I use a swivel to reach that hidden nut.

Might want to try that. Also, have a deep and shallow socket available.

thanks for the advice guys...

yeah my starter has the heat shield on it but it's not bolted down.... it's just sittin' there floppin' in the breeze. I tried to remove the heat shield but it's a no-go with the dp on. Also, I have a 3/8" universal but I can't get a short 19mm socket on the bolt without it hitting the O2 sensor bung. Are you talking about a 19mm universal that has the socket built into it? I suppose my socket might not be short enough. I started using a dremel with a flex shaft attachment to cut into the bung but my flex shaft snapped halfway through the operation so now I either need a shorter socket or another flex shaft. Either way after I get that dp off that bung is getting cut off and the dp will be permanently be a custom 1st gen dp.

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rob r.

well I finally managed to get the starter off. I got it out by disconnecting the turbo oil return line that's right above the starter and that gave me enough room to get the heat shield out and the starter dropped right out after that. only problem is the positive cable going to the starter ripped when it came down so I have to buy a new connector and strip the wire down a little bit before I can put the new one in...

I'll work on the dp again when I have more tools.

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rob r.

just don't use electrical tape as a bandaid on the end of the connector. I did that once and had a nice little fire (that I put out with beer). I feel lucky that I happened to be standing by the car drinking a beer when the electrical tape started on fire.

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Confucius say "Man who run behind car get exhausted, man who run in front of car get tired." Unless we are talking about a 3S. Then it's obviously "man who run is going to get another beer!"