I pulled the front sway bar mounts to put some loc-tite on them, since the sway bar (Saner) has been very noisy recently, and those bolts are often loose. I'm pretty sure this particular bolt got cross-threaded last time, and now it will not go in. The first two revolutions of thread on the bolt are completely filled with metal from the sub-frame. What can be done to fix it? Can I somehow clean up the threads on the sub-frame and buy a new bolt, or do I need to tap new threads into the sub-frame?

 

Tap the threads, dye the bolts!

You can tell I just bought a Tap and Dye kit can't you.

If course you will need a metric set but I'm sure they're not too hard to find even over there.

 

If he taps the threads, he'll have to use the next biggest bolt. There are other ways of repairing the threads to return them to normal.

He could just try cleaning the threads with the same size tap, then see what it looks like.

 

Oh, I'm not for one second suggesting he up the size. Just find out the size and pitch of the thread and run that size tap through the hole and that size dye up the bolt.

Sorry if I wasn't clear on that.

 

If you don't have a tap and die set, then just get several new bolts and try running them through a few times.