I'm waiting on my PMD to get here from Pensacola Diesel, so I've been knocking out other gremlins.

My starter is loose. With the rear bolts threaded all the way in, they still flex side to side. When tightened up, you can move the front end of the starter quite a bit. It will work with the front bracket tight for a little while, then start grinding again. The flywheel/ring gear is fine.

What's the best plan of attack here? HeliCoils? Drill and tap for larger bolts? Like an M11 or what? Never messed with HeliCoils, but sure it can't be too tough. Are HeliCoils available for metric stuff, or are they just offered for certain hole diameters... Not necessarily thread specific?

I want to have the starter problem taken care of before my new PMD gets here on Monday... Thanks in advance guys!

Sounds like your block is cracked around the threads!

The correct bolts are m10 X 1.5 X 113mm

They probably did not put the rear starter bracket (towards the front of the truck). It is a PITA to take off and put back some mechanics or users becomes lazy to put it back. The gasser one don't have it because the starter is half the weight and size of diesel starter so they think it is ok to do that. But that causes stress to the 2 bolts from the bottom.

My truck doesn't have the starter bracket. The starter has been replaced once (before I replaced it again the other day) but I know the P/O (my boss!) and he would NOT leave that bracket out, If it was there, he'd have put it back.

I'd like to see a pic of this bracket tho. Anyone got one?

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=269520

that bracket HAS TO BE INSTALLED to keep the starter aligned and to prevent the 2 other bolts from snapping. IT MUST BE THERE.

Well I fixed my problem for the most part, the front bracket wasn't torqued down and I could still rattle it around. Tightened it and now we're good to go for a bit.