DIY Starter replacement 2022 Mojave MT

[wswindon]

Hi all, I recently had my starter die at 67k miles. After searching YouTube and the forums no one seems to have an easy way to replace it without removing wheel, liner, cat, and/or engine mount. Turns out it is possible but patience is necessary.

My 2022 Mojave (with 6-speed) is stock except for Apex sway bar disconnect, airlift 1000 airbags, and MORE trans skid plate.

Replacement part: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=12569565&cc=3450754&pt=4152&jsn=2

Tools to make life easier:
Harbor freight 3/8 impact wobble bit 15mm
Harbor freight 3/8 extension
3/8 to 1/2 adaptor
Breaker bar
PB blaster
13mm socket
Thinnest ratchet you can find for the 13mm
cutoff wheel (used a Dremel)

disconnect the battery first.
spray PB blaster on bolt head ( i did this over the course of 2 days)
To remove the 2 starter bolts I used the 15mm wobble onto several extensions that equaled 24in, then onto a 24in breaker bar. A second person to hold the extension and breaker bar is helpful but not necessary.
these are for the lower bolt

the skid plate stayed on, if you dont have one itll give you a little bit more room/better angle

Heres the routing for the upper bolt

for the upper bolt, the extension routed to the driver side of the driveshaft this time

unclip this plastic clip(red). Best to use 2 hands to rotate and push the clip between the bolt and starter body.
now you can undo the connector(yellow)

for the main wire (Red brick in the pic above but no other for this step) this is where the 13mm and thin ratchet comes in handy. A portion of the engine mount flange(?) makes a larger head ratchet difficult to attach and too long of a socket causes the ratchet handle immovable. We found that tipping the back downward a bit gave enough room to use get the socket and ratchet in there. Theres another plastic clip on the block that holds the cable with the red brick on it that you need to pop out to push the connector and main cable out of the way towards the cat for more room.

Now comes some patience and maneuvering. Here is the way we rotated it to get through.

And its finally out!!
The replacement part that I used from Rockauto has a longer stud so i had to remove about half of its length with a cutoff wheel because in the video above, you can see how that stud just barely clears the engine mount when sliding out.

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[Lost1wing]

Nice! It reminds me of a time that I replaced a starter on a box truck. I'm blanking on the engine, but I do remember removing engine mount bolts to make room for the starter to slide 3 feet down the frame rail. The head mechanic told me how after I questioned the removal of belts, ac compressor and air pump in the manual. It still took me an hour or so.

 

[Janster]

Damn….I’m glad I have the coin to support the local economy (auto shop).
Only 2 years old?? That’s a little disturbing.

I remember a time back in college……. I was living on campus. This was back in 1989 or so. I changed the starter in the dorm parking lot on a 1984 Plymouth Horizon with a tiny set of sockets/tools from Harbor Freight. Oh the memories….

 

[Lost1wing]

Damn….I’m glad I have the coin to support the local economy (auto shop).
Only 2 years old?? That’s a little disturbing.

I remember a time back in college……. I was living on campus. This was back in 1989 or so. I changed the starter in the dorm parking lot on a 1984 Plymouth Horizon with a tiny set of sockets/tools from Harbor Freight. Oh the memories….

Boeing had an air valve that was a pain to replace by some mechanics. It was located in the engine pylon and had an access door on either side of the pylon. Removing the clamps, sense lines and electrical connectors was easy. The hard part was removing it from it's location. Most would struggle for a while and finally resort to dismantling more of the equipment in the area. They would get it out eventually. I had found a way to rotate the valve 180 deg on the vertical axis and then removing the valve outboard while rotating it 90 degrees on the horizontal axis. The whole job was three hours with operational checks and leak checks. This was normally a turn over job.

We can change our publications to make thing easier for the next guy. Tesla has a program like that too. The big three seem to build in a lot of unnecessary labor time by design.

I like it that people here share their experiences with the rest of us.

 

[SoK66]

We had a starter fail at about 20,000 miles on one of our Jeep tour Gladiators that’s based in Moab. The darn ESS takes its toll if you don’t shut the bloody thing off one way or the other.

 

[Janster]

Boeing had an air valve that was a pain to replace by some mechanics. It was located in the engine pylon and had an access door on either side of the pylon. Removing the clamps, sense lines and electrical connectors was easy. The hard part was removing it from it's location. Most would struggle for a while and finally resort to dismantling more of the equipment in the area. They would get it out eventually. I had found a way to rotate the valve 180 deg on the vertical axis and then removing the valve outboard while rotating it 90 degrees on the horizontal axis. The whole job was three hours with operational checks and leak checks. This was normally a turn over job.

We can change our publications to make thing easier for the next guy. Tesla has a program like that too. The big three seem to build in a lot of unnecessary labor time by design.

I like it that people here share their experiences with the rest of us.

And don’t you love it (Not!) when you research online on how to fix something (Youtube or whatever) and you’re in the middle of doing it and wonder… WHY THE HELL did they do it that way?? And of course, then there’s the videos that make it look so damn easy, but when you go to do it, it’s a royal pain in the ass.
Kinda like removing JT fenders….

 

[vacaedzzr1200]

Several parts I have ordered for other vehicles from Rockauto are not quite oem so made for other problems.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

We had a starter fail at about 20,000 miles on one of our Jeep tour Gladiators that’s based in Moab. The darn ESS takes its toll if you don’t shut the bloody thing off one way or the other.

Sorry, that's not what does it.
It has nothing to do with ESS, and in fact, most fail because of an internal fuse. It's not worn out or burned out.
Have you seen inside these? No way they "wear out" and ESS won't shut down if the starter gets hot, so you can't even blame that.

Too much fake info out there.

Starter failure is rare, and fact is, most people don't disable ESS. Millions of these out there without starter issues and ESS working the whole time.

 

[SoK66]

Ok

 

[Lost1wing]

Several parts I have ordered for other vehicles from Rockauto are not quite oem so made for other problems.

I would buy Mopar parts from RockAuto, but not the off brands. The reason I don't buy my parts from RockAuto is the price and the time to ship. You could go order from a dealer and most times they have it the next day. As long as your dealer doesn't make you pay the mfg suggested retail price, you can beat the RockAuto price accounting from the shipping fee.

I just ordered an oil pan, gasket and pickup tube oring. When I checked RockAuto, it was shipping from 3 different warehouses, meaning 3 shipping charges.

The dealer near me didn't have it in stock. I checked on Amazon and most everything I ordered, I had the next day. I ordered a radiator, thermostat related parts too. What you need to look at when ordering oem parts from Amazon, is who the supplier is. Most of my parts were from a CDJR dealer.

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