[Shotimes] Repair on RSB bolt

[Josh Salaets]

Hey Everyone,

I decided to re-lube my TPR rear sway bar bushings earlier tonight, and came
across a cross-threaded bolt that holds the left-rear sway bar bushing bracket
in.  A friend of mine that helped me install the bar earlier last year
accidentally cross-threaded it, but he was able to just run it in there and we
were able to get a good torque on it.  Of course I didn't remember this until
I went to take the bracket off and fought the bolt all the way out.  It came
out just fine, but you could tell the threads were a little messed up.

I cleaned up the bolt hole with an 11x1.50mm tap and the bolt with an 11x1.50
die, which seemed to be the right size.  While tapping the bolt hole out, I
noticed quite a bit of metal shavings fell out, which made me nervous that it
took out too many threads.  After cleaning the hole and bolt up, I tried the
good bolt from the left side in the repaired hole and the re-threaded bolt in
the right side.  Both seemed to go into the holes fine, so I swapped them back
and torqued the brackets down to the recommended 28 ft lbs.

The cleaned-up bolt tightened up fine in the repaired hole and both were able
to handle being torqued, but I am still worried that the strength of the
fastener has been compromised.  I drove the car in and out of a few driveways
and jacked it up on both sides to give the rear bar a good workout.  I then
rechecked both bolts, and they were still at 28 ft lbs.  I am just paranoid
that that bolt is going to slip out of the hole while I am pushing the car
hard in a corner and I am going to lose control.

Am I just being too paranoid, or should I find a better way to repair it?  If
so, what would I use to repair something like that?

THANKS!

Josh Salaets
95 SHO MTX (See it here: www.cardomain.com/id/sh0gun)
85 Omni GLH-T (Autocrosser)
Eugene, OR