Tips on keeping the starter bolts from backing out?

[funknut]

Looking for tips to keep the starter from working itself loose.  440 w/ 727.  New Powermaster starter after the last one backed out the bolts and broke off the snout covering the pinion.  Currently using split washers and this last time I tried blue loctite.  Was good for 250 miles, but loose again.

Any other words of wisdom?  I was thinking of just getting longer bolts and using locking nuts. It's kind of a nightmare to get to with the headers, but could be done.

[green69rt]

Never heard of starter bolts working loose.  I know it's almost impossible to do with the tranny in the car but you need to inspect those threads in the bell housing.  There's got to be something going on there.    If it was cross threaded at some time in it's life then those treads would slowly chew away and nothing is going to make the bolt hold.   That is an aluminum case, right?  So.......

[crj1968]

Any other words of wisdom?  I was thinking of just getting longer bolts and using locking nuts. It's kind of a nightmare to get to with the headers, but could be done.

I have had to do that before because the threads on the case were so bad/gone.

[funknut]

Never heard of starter bolts working loose.  I know it's almost impossible to do with the tranny in the car but you need to inspect those threads in the bell housing.  There's got to be something going on there.    If it was cross threaded at some time in it's life then those treads would slowly chew away and nothing is going to make the bolt hold.   That is an aluminum case, right?  So.......

I have had to do that before because the threads on the case were so bad/gone.

Quite likely the threads got boogered up.  The previous owner had a knack for using random hardware to throw things together.

I'll get some lock nuts on there.

Thanks guys!

[John_Kunkel]

FWIW, top should be a bolt and bottom should be a stud/nut.

[funknut]

I was able to get a longer bolt and lock nut in the top hole.  The threads were really marginal, so no surprise it was working loose.

The bottom bolt still seems to have a lot of bite still, but I'll keep an eye on it for sure.

Thanks everyone.