Ok.for the third time since I got my truck the starter has worked its was loose.is this common? I decided to pull the starter this time to find it only has two bolt holes but the bell housing has three threaded holes.does my truck have the wrong starter?

 

Both the 87 6.9 I put in my truck and the 89 7.3 I took out use 3 bolts to hold starter.

 

yep you got the wrong starter

 

Either the wrong starter, or one of the mounting tabs broke off. You could try putting lock washers under the bolt heads.

 

I have an 87 6.9 and my starter into the bell housing has 4 bolts.

 

Hmm I wonder what my starter is for. The two bolts had lock washers. I cleaned the oil off the bolts and used some lock tite

 

A lot of people leave tho topbolt out of these starters because its a pain to get to and the two bottom bolts are usually sufficient

 

Yeah my top ones were a pain but after you make a puzzle of extebsions and u joints for your ratchett its real easy

 

if i am not mistaken, the two bolt design is the powerstroke starter

 

lol yea it only takes about 6 extentions 4 universials and three hands to get that ******* out..
i did put it back in though, lot easier when you figure out how to reach it

 

Yeah its wicked easy after you figure it out

 

I want to know what genius thought having two 1/2" bolts and one 9/16" on my starter was a good idea. The top one was the 9/16 and I went about bats$%^ crazy trying to figure why my 1/2 socket would NOT fit

 

Probably because they are 3/8" threads, and standard for 3/8" is a 9/16" head. The real question is why did Ford choose to use a special bolt with a 1/2" head and 3/8 threads for their starters?