Hey guys, I had my s2000 lifted up to address the famed blown left rear differential mount today. I lowered the exhaust, unbolted the rear sway bar, and lowered it down. After much struggling, I finally replaced the left differential mount. My problem is that the lower of the two screws that hold the sway bar to the chassis on the left side became stripped, not the bolt itself, but the socket/sheath that the bolt goes into. I retardedly screwed it in at a 25-30 degree angle, and every since, all attempts yield no tightening of the bolt.

The below picture is exactly the bolt in question, courtesy of s2kblog.com
[attachment=24613:s2000-rear-dif-mount-2.jpg]

The bolt itself doesn't appear to be horribly stripped as a result of my misadventure, but i'm going to order a new one anyway. I hope this doesn't mean I have to replace that part of the chassis that the bolt goes into. Forgive my lack of knowledge/vocabulary, I really am new to working on cars on my own in general!

 

Get yourself a helicoil repair kit and you should be good to go.

 

if its stuck cut the top with a dremal so a flat head can fit with it, if it wont come out and get a thread repair kit. but if you cant get the bolt out, drill it out. i ran into my fair share of stripped bolts/nuts. once you have the bolt out and get the chassis rethreaded, your solid.

 

He already said the bolt is out but it won't hold torque..... aka get a helicoil kit, drill out the hole, tap it, insert the helicoil and install your bolt.....good as new.

 

Thanks guy for the quick replies. I'm going to look into those thread repair kits today.

 

If you can't get a thread repair to work, drill it out and use a rivet-nut.

 

If you only cross threaded it, not stripped it, you can just use a tap to reform the threads. No heli-coil needed.

 

You can drill/tap them the next metric size up as well, I did that on my AP1. Many options to consider.

 

Back from the grave.... while removing my rear sway bar, I broke the interior nut’s weld. I can’t get the bolt out, because the nut is free spinning on the other side.

I can cut the bolt out, but I’m not sure how I’ll reattach the sway bar afterwards. Once the bolt comes out, the nut will fall to the bottom, and the mount will be just be an unthread hole.

any suggestions?

 

A rivnut is your very best option, but it requires a tool and rivnuts (obviously). I don't know if you can drill to the other side of the frame and use a very long bolt and nut/washer on the back side, I haven't looked at it close enough to know. A rivnut is best though.