Has Anyone Tried This?

["Rex" <rexcars@domain.elided>]

The problem with my 1979 Spider is not the starter.  What I found when I
pulled the air box and moved the front fuel filter out of the way was
that the bottom bolt holding the starter to the bellhousing had gone
walkabout, and that the part of the bellhousing into which the shoulder
bolt goes had completely broken off of the bellhousing.

So what was happening was that the starter was held on by only one
(loose) bolt and was flopping around when the bendix tried to engage.  I
don't think I need a new starter.  At least, I'm going to try to fix
this thing and reinstall the existing starter before I blow $100 or more
on rebuilding it, since it spins just fine.

The question is, how do I fix this sucker?  I have another bellhousing,
but I really don't want to pull the engine just to change the
bellhousing.

Here is my tentative plan:  I went to the auto parts store and bought
the toughest epoxy they had (its by permatex and is for bonding steel
and aluminum).  I cleaned up the bellhousing and the chunk of the
bellhousing into which the shoulder bolt fits real nice and epoxied them
together.  I'll buy another bolt the same length as the top bolt to
replace the missing bottom bolt, along with washers and another nyloc
nut, and then I'm going to put permatex treadlock on the top and bottom
bolts to hold them in place.

I'm hoping I only need the shoulder bolt for location and that the other
two bolts can bear the brunt of holding the starter onto the
bellhousing, with a little help from permatex thread sealant (since they
obviously were not up to the job without it).  I will snug up the
shoulder bolt, but I won't tighten it as much as the other two so as not
to break the epoxy seal, which I imagine is weaker than the rest of the
bellhousing.

Am I as nutty as the guy who used hose clamps to compress the front coil
springs on his spider or can this possibly work?

If it doesn't, I can always pull the engine later.

Rex in Albany
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