Well my original starter bought the farm after 7 years and 74K miles of stop and go city driving.

Ordered a remanufactured starter from Alternator Starter Express . Placed the order thru on Paul on Tuesday and the starter was delivered today as promised. The starter looks as if brand new. It has a 3 year warranty and cost $125 shipped( I get $25 back if I ship them my old core for a net of $100). Fairly decent price.

Things I had to remove to get to the starter:
1) Fan Shroud (torx and 4 bolts)
2) Turbo hoses ( it's apparent which ones when you try to access the 2 starter mounting bolts
3) Air Intake hose to air box
4) Battery ( a must to really access the 2 mounting bolts)
5) little stuff that is obvious when you get into the job.

The 2 starter mounting bolts require a 14MM wrench or socket. I got the lower one off with a open 14mm wrench. The top bolt ( challenging to get to because of a very thick cable conduit) required a flex adapter on a 14mm socket. A little liquid wrench and oomph. Once loosened, the 2 bolts could be hand turned off.

In back of the starter there is a bracket mounted to the block with a single 12mm bolt and connected to the rear of the starter with two small nuts. Just remove the 12mm bolt connecting the bracket to the block and with the 2 mounting bolts removed the starter easily comes out.

Don't forget to disconnect the electrical connection ( doh).

Install of new starter just in reverse.

make sure to disconnect your battery before fiddling around !!!!!

All I can say is the Volvo engineer sure designed the 850 to be a pain to access the starter ( and most everything else). On my old 280ZX all I had to do was open the hood and loosen the 2 bolts , disconnect connections and out she came. Truly a 10 minute exercise.

Oh well, It's done. Not difficult at all, just a pain in the butt to gain access (even then minimal room in which to work).

Did I mention limited access ?

Hope this helps someone.

Nate