Government-owned Ally Bank, anxious to start repaying its $17.3 billion taxpayer bailout, is restarting its stalled sale of its ailing mortgage operation, Residential Capital — and is getting early interest from private equity firms, The Post has learned.

Ally, the renamed GMAC financing operation, would like to unload the money-losing ResCap so it can list shares on the public market, sources said — a move that would further help it repay its tremendous debt.

Private-equity titans including Blackstone Group, THL Capital and the Carlyle Group are banding together to make a run at purchasing ResCap, sources tell The Post, though the process is still very early.

Ally in the last several days has sent sales book to prospective buyers — which, interestingly, list assets values of individual pieces of ResCap.

Selling ResCap piecemeal may end up being Ally’s best tack.

On March 12, The Post reported first that GMAC had hired Goldman and Citigroup to sell ResCap.

That process failed as suitors became concerned about a guarantee ResCap made to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which bought most of its loans.

Beginning in 2007, ResCap promised that it would repurchase loans if there was evidence of borrower fraud or if there were early payment defaults. Since that promise, ResCap has sold hundreds of billions in loans to Fannie and Freddie — and bidders had a hard time determining whether ResCap’s $1 billion in reserves was enough to cover the guarantee, or if it would need much more, perhaps as much as $3 billion to $4 billion.

Freddie Mac in May reported GMAC paid it $325 million in exchange for partially letting ResCap off the hook from taking back problem loans originated in 2007 and 2008.

But there is a major stumbling block to Ally selling ResCap — hammering out a deal with Fannie. A source familiar with the matter says settlement talks are ongoing between Fannie and ResCap CEO Tom Marano — and that the talks have been slow going.

No one is likely to make a binding bid for all of ResCap without a settlement, unless there is a deep discount in the sales price, the source said.

Absent that agreement, suitors may opt for cherry-picking the best pieces.

The sellers are hoping to wrap up a sale in the next two months, sources say.

Representatives for GMAC, THL, Blackstone and Carlyle declined to comment.