I looked at my stuff out in the garage. For the AT the spacer is 1 3/8" thick and the holes do go all the way through. However, over to the transmission and there are round stains on the mating surface right about where those holes would be in the spacer. Of course, all bets are off when you are dealing with the ZF6.

 

I know for a fact the two bottom ones go through, but I will get a picture later if I can of the top one just for future reference in regards to the ZF6. I ran bolts through all of them by hand last night, but the top one became resistant toward the end. I was tired and called it a night at that point.

 

Will be interested to find out how the bolts and threads hold up down the road. That looks like a lot of added weight not to mention the lever affect with the weight being off center.

I used to have a ranger that the bolts would not stay tight. I eventually drilled all the way through, used a longer bolt and put a nit on the back side.

 

I know these high torque starters have been around for quite some time and came highly recommended from a couple of well known names on the FTE. I don't think that it will have any problems with proper length bolts holding it in place and possibly running all the way through with lock washers on them.

In addition, if I feel that the weight is too much or the bolts do not seem to be holding I will remove the starter and drill out the spot on the face of the starter for the 3rd bolt.

 

Today was busy at work, so only got a little bit done this evening before I quit. I did make quite a bit of progress though and gathered some good information for future use.

The mounting surface on the Denso starter is 15mm.

The hole depth in the transmission case is 25mm.

Clearly the best bolt size to go all the way to the depth of the mounting holes are 40mm, but don't forget about the locking washers which are about 2mm. I am going to use 45mm bolts and the lock washers to securely mount the starter to the case. If I feel the bolts are slightly too long, I will put a flat washer in the mix as well to bring the bolt through distance down a bit, but I don't think 3mm is going to hurt anything.

All three holes in the case go through to the other side. Although, the bolt started to bind up a bit on the outside of the top hole. Probably because there is 18 years of dirt and crap up there.

I did get the wires connected with the help of a floor jack, then got the starter mounted. I put the starter up first and thought there was no way I was going to have an easy time with mounting the wires, so I took it down and used the jack as a third set of hands. Worked pretty well as there is more than enough slack in the wires to do it this way.





This is a picture of a 50mm bolt in the top mounting hole with about 2-3mm sticking out the back of the hole. You can see that there is about 25mm left on the bolt that is available threads.




This is the mounting surface of the Denso, clearly right at 15mm.

 

This is a picture of the 45mm bolts with a lock washer on them. These are the right size bolts for the application. You can see the compressed lock washer just below the head of the bolt and the very end of the bolt pushing out the back of the hole by about 2mm.

The top bolt is the same as this one and I feel this is the best outcome possible for mounting the Denso starter. Thanks to BBD for recommending new/longer bolts.

 

Keep us posted down the line on how you like this starter! I'm still running my stock starter with over 200K on the truck.

 

I have this starter and its a Beast. Make sure you get the Japanese Denso and not the Chinese Denso. The Japanese one is High Quality.

I got a great deal from Alan who ownes Kankakee Starter and Alternator in Kankakee IL. He is a top notch rebuilder and he sells New Densos

18159393590

BBD

 

What's the hardness on that bolt? Does it matter?

 

I am not sure it matters, but the ones I installed are metric 8.8

I tightened them up, then wiggled the starter (which shook the truck) while putting a bit more torque on the bolts to ensure the washers were fully compressed. Then I gave them one more good attempt to take out any slack left over. I am sure you could run the threads right out of the case if you went all King Kong on them, but they felt very solid and had a lot of bite.

When grabbing onto the starter to check for how solid the mounting points are, the truck will shake a bit if I move the starter.

I am very confident this is the right combination of bolt length and hardware.

Now on to replacing the high pressure steering hose and the steering gear. Then the 2wd LOW mod and GPR light mod. Once I get the hose and steering gear done, I plan to take a video of the truck starting and compare the difference between the before and after.

 

With your new Northstars driving that big starter, you're going to be impressed! It might even make you giggle like a little girl!

 

Thanks for all the pictures.

On my truck, since I have the automatic transmission, both the upper and lower bolts do not go all the way through because the transmission housing is in the way.

I used 7/16 x 1.5" with course thread flange bolts that are grade 8, but grade 5 would have been okay too. The Bolt is not the weak link the aluminum alloy plate is...

Again, Nice Job MSgt.

Big
Black
Dually

 

I figured there would be some differences in the housing based on the 4R100 vs. the ZF6.

The nice job credit goes to you my friend. I would have more than likely just put the OEM bolts back in and they would have gone maybe 1/2 way through the mounting holes. Because the bolts go all the way through now, the starter is securely mounted. I would almost guarantee that with the OEM bolts there would have been problems down the road somewhere. Although, I am not an engineer and that is only my intuition. Maybe it would have taken a year, maybe 3, but comparing a 30mm vs a 45mm bolt, there is a drastic difference in thread count and bite into the mounting locations.

Thanks again BBD, I appreciate you posting the advice prior to installing the starter which allowed me to have a successful install.

 

Seems I've missed alot...

I'll through my hat in for Rudolph's needs:

Diagnose Glow Plugs- With the GPCM connected it seriously pulls the batteries down. Glow plugs were replaced November 2012, but need to ohm them out.

Leaking HPOP- More than likely leaking from the non-serviceable plug.

Leaking front cover- Slow leak, but will have to be fixed when I pull the engine sometime in the Spring.

Trans flush

UVCH- Need to get OEM part, used Dorman last time (shame on me)

Injector reseal and maybe upgrade to 80% nozzles

 

Today was a good day.

Steering gear installed.
High pressure steering hose installed.
Batteries installed.

The Denso starter and batteries turn the truck over at least 2x faster, probably more like 3x times faster. I have a couple of short videos, but need to edit them and do them up right. Once that is done (probably tomorrow) I will post the link to YouTube.

As a teaser, here is a picture of the alternator and batteries in the truck.