Congrats on completing this PITA repair!
Parts I used:
Intake Manifold Gasket
Starter
Was a 3 hr. job and I spent most my time w/ my feet in the air while my security camera laughed at me the entire time. The next day my mid section was quite bruised from this LOL. I sure wish the starter would have gone out before I lifted it! Made sure to take the time to clean out the intake manifold and throttle body as it was a little nasty. Fuel disconnect was very time consuming as my disconnect tool didn't want to slip in on both sides of the connector, every time I got one side in, the other popped out. Finally I got it, but dang had to fight it for a while.
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Im on my fourth Armada/QX56, all have been 2004-2006 models, and last month I did my fourth starter - one on each of them! I don’t rush the job, and I’m down to 4 hours. I bought a cheap plastic fuel line remover set for $10, thinking to myself this will never work at the time - but that cheap tool still works, quick and slick. I also like the manifold out of the way. I have removed the TB on some with 10mm bolts simply plugging the water lines, and left it in place on others - it’s a 50/50 draw - 6 of one, half dozen of the other. Makesno real difference I guess is what I’m saying here. I live in an area that sees a bit of salt. It my current truck came from Montana, where I presume there is lots of salt on the roads. The toughest part of the starter change last month was getting the starter out of the hole! Removing the old one required a large rubber mallet to knock it down and a large pry bar to bring it back up - back and forth a number of times before its machined register would let that starter go! I did clean it up and reinstalled with anti sieze befor assembly.
Another surprise awaited me in the valley. 3 of the four starters had a mouse/squirrel home under the intake, but this one was the only one with damage to the wiring harness at both knock sensors. The 18” piece of sub harness was close to $300 here at the dealer. But a close inspection of the plug looked suspiciously close to an old L-Jetronic FI plug, and I was totally right. Even better is that this plug is a standard Pico PN 5621-BP and cost me a whole $11 each to replace. You US folks probably pay half that. Anyways, with some crimp conectors and some shrink tubing, I felt I did a proper repair, and I put it all back together, and replaced the rather aging serpentine belt while I was under the hood and had a few things out of the way.
not a bad job, certainly easier than valve cover gaskets - that job sucks. But GotGrit, I empathize with your sore gut after leaning over that rad support to do the job. Mine hurt for every one of these jobs too!
But thank his for this forum. Over the years, all of you contributors have kept my Armada/QX56’s on the road reliably and keeping them cost effective. For any of you that have posted useful tech information here, and the the site mods for babysitting, we have a great community.
Byron
