Bob Holton

Does any one understand metrics, bolts nuts. What is the bolt that holds the bottom of the starter to the tranny ? size pitch thread whatever? usually I take the bolt or nut to the hardware to match up , they wont crawl under the car to figure this out . I havent a clue where to search, Its the bolt that when dropped instantly burrows into the sand or weeds , never to be seen again. Thanks in advance.

Shamus

Take one of the other starter bolts out and take it with you. the threads should be the same

Bob Holton

Took a big bucket of miscl bolts under the car with me , many tries and found one, too long but a hack saw fixed that. Stupid metrics anyway.

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

I've seen several damaged trannies due to a PO's monkey shines. Your typical SAE/standard/imperial whatever bolt easily found at a hardware store or in a bucket is similar to a metric 10mm x 1.5. I have a few of them laying around.

I guess you got lucky. Glad it worked out in the end.

peejay

The lower starter bolt is a different thread from ANY other bolt on the car! That's why it's such a PITA.

It's coarse thread while the other bolts of that diameter are not. (I think the rest of the bolts are 10x1.25)

jason_child

In CANADA metric is where it is at ...... eh!

now go back up on your ruffs with your beanie's on yanks

translated to canadian:
go back on you roof with you toque on americans eh

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

Correction; it is the only bolt on the car of that particular length and thread pitch. There are other bolts and studs with the same thread pitch such as the long starter bolt, front cover bolts, exhaust studs etc.

During engine swaps or clutch jobs, Joe mechanic often mistakes one of the bellhousing bolts for the short starter bolt, trashing the treads of the bolts and/or threaded holes in the process. Having as many vintage trannies as I do, I've seen this damage many times.

Hey jason child, neither of your sentences were coherent. Both must have lost something in the translation.

peejay

I've done it too. When you have ten minutes to put the starter in and the original bolt is gone, you just graunch in a "wrong" bolt and hope when the starter has tome come out again, the threads don't come out with it.

FWIW I put a "correct" bolt back in when the tranny went into the current car, it threaded in and tightened down OK.

Also FWIW, all US cars are metric now, have been since the 80's or so. And we pronounce "roof" to rhyme with your "about" so neener neener.

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

I've had to chase the threads in two bellhousings so far. Luckily the bolts seem to tighten down pretty well even though some threads are missing. Good thing Mazda used coarse threads in aluminum.

My old 3B engine has damaged threads at the lower corner near the exhaust from some PO's attempt to install a starter bolt. Both the hole and the bolt have funky threads, but they do seem to tighten down pretty well. I did try to install a good condition bolt and it started killing the bolt. Back in went the funky bolt. 'Nough said (until a clutch job or whatever prompts me to chase the threads).

jason_child

I know, its really hard to translate your american words and I'm not fully fluid yet but I am taking class....lol

Seriously tho I love metric besides height and weight i dont really understand imperial

yay....metric Candad and Japan rule
boo.. america just jkinI wouldn't mind some of your laws

Bob Holton

Say what ? Jason child. oot and aboot is the best I can translate. hehehe

jason_child

yeah bob your starting to get it just end sentences with eh and so on throw some aboots around and your there

peejay

It's fairly easy. In the end it doesn't matter what the units *are*, although doing things metric for the sake of metric is just half-assed (7.62 ammo, 114.3mm bolt circle, etc) if it makes the numbers more complex.

I mean, try figuring out what a 3/8"x16tpi bolt is in metric...

Dom

Fluent?

Kidding?


He's not with me!

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

Just a guess, but that would be close to a 10mm x 1.5. However, I have no idea what it would actually be. Whoops, I was supposed to make them guess.

web777

Is that true? I haven't wrenched on American car for awhile but I always thought they were still standard.

Metrics rule. It so much simpler than 9/16", 7/16"....etc!

GavinJuice

American Cars started to convert to metric in the late 70's. STARTED is the key word there. You can pretty much take a metric set and take apart a whole car nowadays, and many standard bolts can be taken off with a metric wrench. Take a look at this site http://outreach.missouri.edu/webster...enchchart.html and you'll see what i mean. Some metric wrenches are dead on with a standard one.

I went to my uncles tranny shop and his tool box was pretty much all metric.

jason_child

btw guys Im not as much of a **** up as I made it sound I was just screwing around I mean what kinda canadian spells it candad I mean seriously people but I think what it all comes down to here is I beat a 86 300zx turbo today hells yea

Bob Holton

Th Yoopers are prone to "EH" as well. The world of measurement is a mess. Some places use rocks as a unit of weight , metric for distance and leiters for liquids and then wonder why its all so incomprehensiblle, maybe a set of metric nuts and bolts labeled and displayed would be a way to go. At the least you wouldn't have to drag everything to the hardware and look dumb.

peejay

Yes it's true. ALL new American cars are all-Metric, have been for at least a decade.

The PITA was the early 80's when you'd have some metric fasteners and some SAE (not Imperial, us 'Murricans are different from those pommy bastids) in the same general location. Fun for all.

Not really. I mean, in the end it's just a number that signifies a dimension. You know that 1/4 is half the size of 1/2, right? And if you need a bolt that's smaller than the 3/8 one you're holding then it's going to be a 5/16.

At least the SAE stuff generally has only two thread pitches, SAE Fine and SAE Coarse, the exact thread pitch (determined in threads per dimension instead of dimension per thread, easily determined with just a ruler) varying by diameter - a coarse 1/2 isn't going to be the same pitch as a coarse 3/8. Compare that to metric where you can have four differen thread pitches for the same thread diameter (like say 12x1.0/1.25/1.5/1.75).

alien_rx7

Say Ya to Da UP, Eh! Use to live up there. Some nice roads for cruising up in da Keewenaw, eh

Bob Holton

Who works on cars only a decade old? The newer stuff needs all sorts of special tools ,like those torxey drivers,or is that turkey? The SAE makes so much more sense as do decimals. these you can do in your head and dont have to pick and choose between those almost the same metrics. My solution is to keep SAE taps handy and recut those damn metrics when I cant find what I want. Dont care much for Celcius either, too dam old I guess.

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

Torx. The newer stuff sucks to work on anyway.

I have a set of metric taps and dies that I've used several times on my older Mazdas. The only other taps I have are NPT in various sizes. Oh, and one 10mm x 1.0, that wasn't included in the tap and die set, for chasing the tension bolt threads in front plates (Judge Ito's trick for more accurate torqueing of rebuilds).

I currently have no need for SAE taps. I guess I could consider myself lucky?

peejay, I used a stainless steel Mazda exhaust nut (10mm x 1.5) on a 3/8" x 16TPI (long) bolt with an FC starter on an '85 or older engine and tranny since I didn't have a stock FC bolt. It seemed to work. At least I think it's a 3/8 x 16. Heh, you tell me.

peejay

I do! Actually most stuff I work on is newer than that. 10 year old cars are junk heaps that usually aren't worth repairing, given that the kind of people who buy them buy them because they can't afford a decent car in the first place, so they drive a rusted out '95 Corolla or something.

Jeff - 1.5mm per thread is 16 1/3 TPI, and 10mm is *just* larger than 3/8", so it'd probably work well enough as long as you didn't expect much out of the threads. As you'd proven.

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

Yep, just enough to snug the bolt for a temporary test fire is all it needed.