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Subject:Re: Replacing Starter on 85 Vanagon - Jackstands or Ramps ?
From:kenneth wilford (Van-Again)
Date:Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:28:39 -0400

Mark, you can just jack it up on one side with a jack and changing it out
is pretty easy.  I use ramps and jack stands as well and either will also
work if you want some more clearance.

Hate to hate on a product but I really don't like that GW reduction
starter.  My advice is to keep your old Bosch unit so that in a year or two
when the reduction one craps out, you will at least have a core to send
back in when you buy a Bosch unit to replace it with.

My story:
I installed one of these on a customers vans a few years ago.  He lives in
New York area so maybe it is just an East Coast thing but the van came back
about a year later (just outside the warranty period) and the customer is
saying that the starter isn't working.  When the van came back in the
starter was so rusty and junky looking that if I didn't install it myself a
year before I never would have believed it was the same part.  It was a gob
of rust worth nothing.  The customer decided to go back to Bosch and had to
pay the core charge on top of the rebuild cost since he had thrown his own
Bosch unit away.

Hope you have better luck with yours.

Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com

On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 9:25 AM, Mark Carrig <stratmanx@yahoo.com> wrote:

> So I've got a Go Westy Whiz Bang Gear Reduction Starter, and thinking
> about the best way to replace it.
>
> Should I put the rear of the bus on jackstands and remove the right rear
> wheel ?
>
> Put the back end up on ramps ?
>