Starter bolts
 

I checked today and sure enough I'm missing one. Does the end of the bolt have to be turned down like the oem bolt? Is blue locktite good enough?

You might want to check and make sure the bolt hole is not stripped. Mine was.

I'm gonna chase the threads with a tap before I put it in.

I had problems with my starter bolt backing out. So far the helicoil has worked great. No problems or backing out. What starter are you using?

As far as I know it's stock. It grinded pretty bad monday and sure enough a bolt was missing. The threads has a lot of trash in it, so i'm guessing it's been gone for a while.

FWIW mine has backed out 3 times in 200k miles. I have cleaned them and used loctite each time.

red or blue

Blue the first time, red this last time. Of course my threads my have given up when I snugged the bolt down the last time.

Is this all random occurrence?

I almost lost mine as well, a month ago. Upper bolt was missing, and had been for awhile, and the lower was half way out. The first time in 5 years and 2 starters. I changed the starter exactly a year ago.

Just wondering what would have caused this. I red locktighted the bolts and so far so good.

Its interesting, and it may just be coincidence, but all of you have 2002 trucks with the exception of dcf4x4 who has a 2000. However, he has replaced his starter and since locktite has been good to go.

Mines an 03, I guess I need to get under there and make sure they are snug.