Can I leave ONE engine/bell housing bolt out?

[auto117584]

It broke off when trying to remove it, and I drilled it out poorly. The hole in the bell housing is lopsided and I won't be able to tap it. I flunked this one. It won't hurt to leave ONE bolt out, will it??? 95 B2300.

 

[country0001]

Lock tite the other ones in and u should be ok. SHOULD.

 

[auto117584]

Lock tite the other ones in and u should be ok. SHOULD.

haha. should indeed.

 

[cammeddrz]

i've left out 2 before, one on purpose and one i missed for some reason. all the bellhousing bolts do is hold the engine longitudally to the transmission. all twisting is prevented by the big dowel pins..........long story short. you'll be fine

 

[country0001]

The reason I recommend lock tite is in case they do decide to back out and break the flexplate, assuming that u have an auto. Locktite is just good insurance anyways.

 

[auto117584]

The reason I recommend lock tite is in case they do decide to back out and break the flexplate, assuming that u have an auto. Locktite is just good insurance anyways.

no, it's manual. aren't they supposed to be tightened to a specific ft.lbs?

 

[Frank The Tank]

I've left one out on an auto trans pan before, haha.

I would ease out or drill and it.
Me and my stepdad have been mulling it over, theres a whole lot of torque there..... not really something you want to come apart.

It should be ok, but if it were on my truck........ I would have all the bolts in.
but eh, that's just me.

Frank

 

[auto117584]

I've left one out on an auto trans pan before, haha.

I would ease out or drill and it.
Me and my stepdad have been mulling it over, theres a whole lot of torque there..... not really something you want to come apart.

It should be ok, but if it were on my truck........ I would have all the bolts in.
but eh, that's just me.

Frank

I hear ya, but when i drilled the bolt out, i went in "not straight", and the back end of the hole, on the high side of the hole, is GONE. Can't put threads in there, the metal is gone. as in "not there". drilled out, disappeared, and on the garage floor, actually. just a pile of metal bits... can we say "woops"? I'll just have to refrain from revving it up to 3500 rpm and popping the clutch, I guess...

 

[cammeddrz]

you will be fine. as far as torque goes the bolts don't even hold that stress. they just keep the engine mated to the trans. ever notice how on nearly every bellhousing the bolt holes are quite a bit larger diameter than the bolt? (in fact that's why you couldn't drill it very easily) if there were any movement at all they wouldn't design the bellhousing bolts to be 1/2" in diamter while a 3/8" bolt goes through it.

like i said in my previous post all stress and torque is held by the dowel pins. (notice the tight fit of the dowel pins?) all the bolts do is keep them pressed together so that the dowel pins can do their job.

my v8 broncoii is minus 1 bellhousing bolt out of necessity as we speak, it has been since last year. plenty of wheeling and in fact on mother's day it actually caught about 3 feet of air.......no problems.

 

[adsm08]

You will be just fine. I prefer to have all of them too, as I'm sure we all do, but it's not a 100% needed thing.

I've left vehicles I've worked on at work go down the road minus a bell bolt many times, for a variety of reasons from forgot to put it in to that ear off the trans case. Not a single one of them has ever come back for something related to being short a bolt.