So like the title says I crossed the threads in one of the holes where you insert the bolt that holds the front sway bar bracket to the chasis. There's no way I'm getting a bolt into that cleanly now without messing up the threads on the bolt itself. My question is what can I do? Do I need to take it into a dealer or some shop so that they can rethread the hole? Will this require the use of a slightly larger bolt if they drill out and rethread the hole? Obviously I've never run into this situation before.

 

Okay, I wouldn't normally admit this but I did the same thing... I am running only 2 bolts and a nut on one of my swaybar brackets. I've done 2 autocrosses like this and everything is still okay. I would re-tap the hole when you get a chance. no need to bring it to a shop just grab the right metric tap its M12x1.25 if my memory is working properly...

 

yeah...what he said....

 

Thanks guys.. I did manage to clean up the threads in the hole a little bit and removed the loose shavings. That allowed me to actually get the bolt all the way in with a little bit of extra force than normal. The bolt doesn't torque all the way down to recommened toreque setting as it just keeps on spinning but at least it's in there pretty securely for the most part. This isn't too urgent so I'll take care of it properly sometime down the road.

 

Ive got two holes in my strut tower brace bracket that I have all messed up. So Ive got to get them rethreaded and new bolts, but no problems because of it. Id imagine a sway bar bracket would be a higher priority to have taken care of though.

 

i stripped all of my Strut Tower bar threads....$15 for a tap, some new stainless bolts and it's better than new...same principle applies here!!

 

Haha, I stripped one of the holes in the frame last week while installing my front sway. It would only go half way in, so I just cut a little less than half of the bolt off, then tightened it right on up. It's not going anywhere

 

This **** happened to me today. Gonna try to tap it out tomorrow. When comparing the bolts to the available taps at Lowe's it looked like a 9x1.25 was the right size but of course, you have to buy the 75 piece kit to get the 9mm one -.- 8 and 10 sold individually but not the 9 ha

 

7 year dead thread has been revived.......

if you have a harbor freight by you check there

 

Went to Carquest (way better than Lowe's, Autozone, etc) and the guy had a micrometer and a thread pitch guide. Turns out, the bolt was a 10mm x 1.25 and he had the tap in stock. I'll admit I was slightly nervous about carving out new threads in the frame but let me say in retrospect, don't be. It was my first time re-threading anything and it was beautiful. The bolts glided in finger tight to the bracket after re-threading and torque'd down no problem. I was very pleased with the outcome.

 

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has done this. Why Nissan made those threads and holes so easy to crossthread I'm not sure. I am always very careful and have a feeling someone before me started the process and I just ended up being the one to have them strip the rest of the way. I guess it's time to chase them and fix the issue.

 

There is a specific order for torquing the sway bar bracket bolts, if you read the FSM.

 

I didn't read the FSM (if I had, I probably wouldn't have had this issue) but my guess is that the two bolts that go into the angled portion of the bracket need to be put in AFTER the nut and bolt on the flat (parallel to the ground) portion of the bracket. The holes/bolts that are at an angle are the ones that gave me problems and I think it was because I tried to get all 3 bolts+1 nut started before tightening them down.

Basically, the angled portion of the bracket isn't lined up until the flat portion is tightened down. The angled portion of the bracket was pressing on the bolt and forced it to go in wrong. That's what happened to me anyways but like I said, the tap made easy work of fixing it.