Can you get away with not reinstalling one of the belhousing bolts if it where striped out? What could happen if it where not reinstalled? Thanks.
Rob

 

The remaining botls would be loaded more and maybe the housing could distort. If you can get at the stripped thread, you can Helicoil it. That would be the preferred method.

BTW, there's no such thing as a "stupid question" if you don't know the answer. This one is not even close to being stupid.

 

Are you talking about the bolt itself, or the bolt hole? Did you cross thread it?

 

Really the bellhousing bolts should not see much load that is what the dowels are for. Try running any power with just the bolts and missing or loose dowels and big problems will arise fast, from engine tranny alignment issues to bellhousing bolts snapping right out of the aluminum tranny case(a friend did this with a BBC 700R4 in a truck by the time he found the clunk only one bolthole in the case was intact). I would still do my best to make sure all bolts are in place and tight.

 

On the other hand if you loosened or removed the bolts the dowels wouldn't hold much.

The bolts aren't used for locating, just clamping. There is a considerable bending load on the engine/trans mating surface because the engine is supported at the engine mounts and the trans mount about 3 feet aft. If a bolt is missing, even with dowels in place, the loads travel different paths through the flywheel housing or auto trans case from what was intended and distortion or failure can occur. This does bad things to transmission input shafts, etc.

I agree with 96capricemgr that you should make sure all bolts are there and tight.

 

Well here is what happened..... i have a short block on a stand and while I was reinstalling the bolts one got cross threaded and then when I tried to back it out it snapped. I got most of it out but still have some more to go. Any suggestions? Thanks for all the input.
Rob