Well, the starter decided to die on my 1999 F250 Super Duty. It is a manual with 4WD if that matters. Anyway, I replaced the starter and found that one of the bolts was missing. A heater hose had blown a few weeks back and I dumped a bunch of water into the radiator so wanted to make sure it had a strong mix with this cold coming in. Obviously it was working with only two bolts so I went ahead and started it to mix the full-strength coolant into the block and radiator but don’t want to do this long term.
I would have been happy to remove one of the bolts to use for size but it is stupid cold outside right now and I figured the internet would have the answer. NOPE! Like usual I found all kinds of bad advice and suggestions to use SAE bolts. I may have had a stud at one time but if so, it is gone and now replaced with a bolt. All bolts have the same thread type but there are two shorter bolts of the same length and a longer one. I used a 12mm socket on these but do not know the length or thread diameter/pitch. I should have measured and would take them off but with the cold, I don’t want to mess with it. I figured the internet would have had the answer but apparently it was just a bunch of conflicting and obviously bad advice. I have one short bolt and the long one. I need another short one but might go ahead and replace all of them since two have been doing the work of three for all this time.
The upper one behind the start is one of the short bolts so I really don’t want to remove that one. Any of the others wouldn’t be a big deal but this was a pain to access and I wonder if a stud was pulled out and replaced with a bolt at sometime in the past. That is the problem with used cars that have been messed with in the past.
I’m seeing it held on by three bolts but not seeing any bolt dimensions. Bolt install torque looks to be16-20 foot pound’s, if that’s of any help. No way to know the bolt sizes and thread pitch, but they are probably all either SAE or Metric, one or the other. I expect you already know how to proceed by trial and error to find the correct bolt dimensions for the missing item.
My Ford truck’s water pump has 6 bolts that holds it on. I think they are all the same diameter and thread pitch, but many of them are a different lengths than the others. If I get them mixed up I start w/the longest, then work my way to the shortest. If the bolt is too long it won’t go in far enough to snug the water pump to the engine. But I want to use up all the longer ones first, b/c a shorter one than required may seem to go in ok , but won’t have enough threads to grab hold.
I see a bolt posted below that looks like it might be correct. All other stuff I found indicated it has one stud and two bolts. I will probably just wait until it warms up and remove the short bolt and match it up at the store. I might just get two, replace them, and the longer one as well. I didn’t think finding the correct size would be that hard.
Nevada provided the part numbers so just order a package of each so you’ll have everything when you crawl under again. Or you can go to a ford dealer with the part numbers and they likely will have them in stock. Wouldn’t surprise me if they arev$30/each though to cover inventory costs.
I am just going to wait until the super cold weather passes, just remove the one I had to work hard to install, and take it the the farm store that has every size of bolt known to man and match it up. The parts provided to not look like what is on my truck. This could be because parts of been replaced with a substitute bolt or there are differences between trucks. I bet the M8x1.25 thread is correct though There was one long bolt and a short bolt installed. I need an additional short bolt. I will get the hardened 10.9 grade bolts of course. There is not a stud mounting my starter.
A few years ago I bought an sae and metric thread deal. You know they have all of the internal and external thread samples to determine what an existing bolt is. They have been very helpful to I’d what I need before heading to the hardware store. I don’t know what they are called. The hardware store has them mounted too but sometimes cannot bring the device in to check.
The only thing is they don’t have left hand threads like I needed for the chain saw. But good enough to be able to order what I needed from fastenal. Yeah it’s a cold and snowey Saturday, I think.
I know exactly the deal you mean. They have one at the local farm store and that is what I plan to use for getting the replacement bolt once it gets warmer outside. I never thought it would be this hard to properly match this up without having to remove the bolts once again.
