Hello guys, new here, but been working on cars at home for some time. new to working on trucks though. Anyways, down to the dirty.

I have a 1997 ford f150 4x4 automatic 4.2l v6 with 250,000miles of wisconsin and it's winter.

Now I'm having trubble with a stripped/siezed starter bolt. I have gotten one of the bolts out, but the second one just does not want to come out, so I used a cheap harbor frieght bolt extractor kit. none of the sockets matched up just right(too tight, or hardly loose) so I ended up stripping the bolt. below is the link to the set.

9 Piece 3/8" Drive Metric Bolt Extractor Sockets

Now I was using a 3/8" ratchet w/ an extension because the starter would not allow for a straight enough point where the socket would fit without an extension. I also have another bolt extraction kit(which is of better quality than the previously used one),the socket fits great, but with the 3/8" ratchet it wont work, or if i do use a 1/4" ratchet w/ an adapter and a leverage pipe, the extractor socket fits so snug that it wants to rub against the starter, not allowing for me to loosen it. Now i've doused the bolt in WD-40 and pb blaster, to try to help. I'm now left extremley frustrated, a month later after several attempts at removing this bolt. I do have a 3" grinder(from harbor frieght) but with the angle of the bolt there is not enough room for me to fit it in there and grind the head off.

my questions now is; is there anything left that i can reasonbly do?(at home with basic set of tools) or should I tow it to a local shop and have them deal with this...the problem is I don't want to spend $200+ in labor for them to remove the starter and insert the new one.

All helpful information is greatly appreciated!

 

Is the starter bad? Not sure how much a core charge is, but you could always break the ear off that has the bad bolt and remove the starter, so that you can access it better and just eat the core charge.

 

try heating it up that always works for me

 

The ear, as in the mounting point surrounding the stripped bolt? correct? any ideas on something to get in there...and I don't want to really harm any besides the junk starter...


jmcnulty -

I have already tried that, that's the one thing I forgot to mention in my original post.

 

How about an impact, either electric or air ? With adapters/extensions as needed. If you can get the new extractor socket on there, it won't take long to break it loose. One squeeze on the trigger should do it. It might ding the starter, but the bolt would be out.

Dave