Starter Motor -How to remove/replace

The bolts on my mk1 MGF VVC starter are ass follows:-

M10
15mm head
90mm long shaft
18mm head on bolt

paulsmgf wrote:

i found it a lot easier to use a long extension and socket through the passengers wheel side of the car

I used a foot long extension so the ratchet was beyond the body of the starter on the bolt.
For the nut I used an offset spanner on the nuts ( https://www.halfords.com/tools/hand-tools/modular-trays/halfords-advanced-8-piece-offset-spanner-set-modular-tray-332934.html ).
For the higher nut I used some insulation tape to hold the nut in the spanner as there was no way I could reach up and start the bolt by hand.

That is interesting thank you. However, there was no way I could position a ring spanner of the type suggested on one of the nuts (the lower one if I remember correctly). The other was accessed by a series of socket extension bars from the off side wheel arch.
My recollection was that beneath the water rail pipework access was limited to somewhere between 2 and 3 inches only.

There is a very small window between the top of the upper water pipe and the bottom side of the inlet manifold where you can see the top half of upper bolt. To get the spanner on it I reached all the way down to just above the off side inner CV joint and then reached the spanner under the water pipes and HT leads (mk1 VVC has coil backs on the back of the engine) to the nut.

My experience and technique is the same as talkingcars in terms of seeing and accessing the nuts and bolts that hold on the starter.

Just this past spring, when I had the starter off to change the timing belt, I painted the two nuts yellow to make them more visible, which I do think is helpful.