Originally Posted by terry274
If at all possible, you may want to have it towed to a professional mechanic and tell him what happened. At this point, no permanent damage is done. If you proceed and leave the bold as is you may do some serious damage.
I don't know your full situation, so this is just a suggestion.
Yeah, I think that will be the next step if cutting the bolt doesn't release the starter. The top of the bolt is wedged into a notch in the metal surrounding where the starter is and the flange on the bolt is what is wedged into the back bottom of the starter with the bottim of the bolt wedged into another lip below the starter. The bolt is acting like a cross brace behind and under the starter. We think cutting the bolt in half (there is room to get a narrow hacksaw in there) should relieve that brace effect the bolt now has on the back of the starter. If it doesn't, then it's off to a pro mechanic. Even though it looks like it's properly fitting into the bell housing, it's just too risky to assume that it is with that bolt possibly causing it to be a hair off.