How to Replace Starter 2003-08 Chevy Tahoe

Right. First, you wanna disconnect the battery. Use an eight-millimeter wrench. Loosen up on the negative side terminal. Take that off and set it aside.

Now the starter's located on the passenger side of the engine. There's a wire right here that goes to the oil level sensor. I'm just gonna take a right-angle pick, disconnect that connector just so I have a little slack on the wiring. Just release that. Use the pick to slide that out. Disconnect that. Now there's two bolts right here. Use a 13-millimeter socket.

All right. Take these bolts out. You can slide the starter back. Now we're gonna take this bolt out right here. Use a 10-millimeter socket. And out. Now just slide the starter back a little bit. Just take this bracket off. Just set it aside. Goes around the starter.

And you can slide the starter down. And if the wiring's in your way, just slide it out of the way a little bit. There's a little cover right here. Take this cover off. Just slide it up like that. Now we need to take the ignition wire off of here using eight-millimeter wrench and take that little nut off. You just twist the starter to the side the best you can. And loosen it up.

You could also use an eight-millimeter socket if you can get in there. Just try to get that nut off. That works also. And slide the ignition wire off. Then not this nut right here but there's another nut on the other side that holds the positive cable on the starter. Use a 13-millimeter wrench or a socket. Loosen up the nut on there.

Now make sure...before you take that nut completely off, make sure you support the starter. Take that nut off and slide the starter down. Before we put the starter back, just take a wire brush. Just clean the connections just so it's nice and clean so there's a good connection. Just use a wire brush. All right. Take the new starter and line this connector up. There is a lock washer. I'm gonna put that on first. And then put the nut on. And tighten that up. So make sure you put it on the right stud. Don't put it on this other stud. And tighten that up. And if you have the ability to get a torque wrench in there, you can torque that to 80 inch-pounds. Do the best you can. Make sure you're on inch-pounds, not foot-pounds. All right. That's tight. Now take the ignition or the starter wire. Get that lined up over the correct stud.

It's kinda hard to see. You can't really see what we're doing. You kinda have to go in blind a little bit. Slide that on. And there's a lock washer for that as well. And put the nut on. And again, if you can get a torque wrench in here to tighten this down, you can torque that to 30 inch-pounds. Make sure you're on inch-pounds, not foot-pounds. And with those bolted on, you can take the shield. Slide the shield back in position. And then slide it back. You slide that starter somewhat in position before you put the...this bolt back in. And you get that bolt lined up. Now snug this bolt down.

And take the two starter bolts. Get these started. And we'll torque those 2 bolts to 37 foot-pounds. And reconnect the oil level sensor. Lock it in place. Then you can reconnect the negative terminal on the battery. Just get that started using an eight-millimeter wrench and tighten it up. Just snug it and then just make sure it's not loose and it's good to go.