I am in the process of taking off my starter to put on a starter block off plate, I was wondering if someone could help me through this since it looks like i need to take off the recoil cover to take off the three bolts that go into the starter???

 

I am not sure about a trailblazer but I just helped a buddy replace a starter in his Xplorer and we did have to take the recol cover off. No big deal as the nothing happens with the recoil when you take it off. It went back together fine. Biggest inconvenience for us was taking off the floorboard.