i misplaced the longer mounting bolt that goes on the bottom side of the starter, and just have it on with the one bolt at the top side of the starter, and its on pretty tight and secure.

i was wondering if i can just get away with trying to start the car with just one bolt holding the starter in place, just this one time, so i can get to a store to buy the longer starter bolt, and then put it in ??

i think i had it with only one bolt for a while in the past and had no problem, but just wanted to get opinions on if it can be bad for anything ??, like does it damage anything if not lined up right when the starter gear turns against the flywheel thing inside there or whatever ???

i just want to get it started in order to get to place to buy the starter bolt i am missing, and thats the only time i would use it like that...

 

Because its soooo hard to ask a friend for a ride, borrow moms car etc etc

Im sure it would be fine, but go to the junkyard and get the bolt for free

 

thnx

i just wanted to make sure the force of the starter motor trying to turn over was'nt going to break or crack where the mounting hole is or anything, since it did'nt have both bolts.


i've just always been one of those people who are "over-carefull", when it comes to doing any work to my car, and feel better asking questions on here to get some type of confirmed answer before doing something.

sometimes questions come off stupid or people say stuff like "common dude, its just common sense .....!", but i don't care,

seems like theres always some little thing i missed along the way that i did'nt think of, so to me its worth asking on here before hand, so others can point out stuff i did'nt think of . . ., then i know i'm covering everything.

 

TBH, I ran with 1 bolt in the top slot on the starter cause the bottom bolt wouldn't thread into my engine for some reason... Ran it like that for easily year+.... FINALLY after about a year, so like 2 months ago now, it would occasionally start with a loud "vrrringgg" coming from the starter area... checked it out and the starter was pushing itself off the tranny... lol, so I got another bolt and finally fixed it....

No teeth blown off or anything, flywheel's fine, same with starter, no issues.

 

1 bolt is fine, even makes it easier to remove later on down the road.

 

I would say its fine but fix it soon man. dont ghetto rig your car

 

i went and just tried to start it even know it only had one mounting bolt holding the starter, which was the shorter bolt near the top of the starter, and it almost started for a second, but then i heard a sound, and after i looked at it, i realised the started came loose, actually cracked right out of the mounting hold part on the starter, cause i think the stress of it trying to turn with just having one mounting bolt over the last 3 yrs caused it to start to form a crack where the hole the bolt goes through is on the starter, and eventually it just gave out.

at least i know it can work using one mounting bolt, as long as you just have it like that for a temporary amount of time, and not too long like 3 yrs, so all i have to do now is put one mounting bolt in the other hole, where the long bolt goes, but i was missing that bolt, so i bought one at Elliotts Hardware since it would take too long to order at dealer and autozone or o'reillys did'nt have any universal type bolts in that size,

now i just have to put that in and finally get my car back on the road, (reason my cars been out of commission over 2 weeks is timing belt snapped on dohc zc, but had guy i know put new one on and i was really lucky cause he was able to start it up afterwards and said there was no damage done, only thing was valves seems loose and were ticking louder, but i can adjust those)