front stabilizer bar bracket threads stripped. helicoil?

[tb3]

I went to put it on, and the threads in the frame are stripped out. it just had to be the only one you can't get to with a nut from the inside  its the driver side rear.  the sleeves for the steering gear box bolts are in the way

it looks like I got a little over a eighth of a inch of meat in the frame to work with.  my guess is that a helicoil would probably work fine. anybody else tried it there?

[Steve Wood]

or a riv nut which might work better given the thickness....

[tb3]

I like that idea, but I don't think I have access to a rivnut puller big enough to do that size bolt. Ill see how much they are. do you think it will handle torsional loads better than a helicoil?

[SuperSix]

Weld it!

[Charlief1]

Helicoil won't work because there's not enough matereal for it to grab and hold. A trick you can try is to weld a piece of steel rod to a flanged nut so you can work it into place. Then you should be able to get the bolt into and the flange will help you to tighten it up if you use air tools.

[tb3]

welding in a new piece with a nut plate on it would no doubt be the best.  but given the quick and easy of a helicoil.... I figured it would at the very least be as strong as it originally was.

charlie
the factory just threaded the hole in the frame, so why couldn't I tap and thread a helicoil?

[ULYCYC]

M8-1.25 self tapping body bolt will do the trick. Drive it in with a impact gun.

[SuperSix]

M8-1.25 self tapping body bolt will do the trick. Drive it in with a impact gun.

I like this option.

[Turbodave]

My solution was to have a couple of steel plates made the same width as the frame rail and long enough the bracket wouldn't hang over the ends.

[Steve Wood]

steel riv nuts will work..but some of the other options are probably easier/cheaper

[Charlief1]

welding in a new piece with a nut plate on it would no doubt be the best.

[daveismissing]

I don't remember whats above, could you drill thru the top of the frame and drop a long bolt?

and if one really wants to know:
http://www.engineersedge.com/thread_strength/thread_minimum_length_engagement.htm

[tb3]

thanks for replys

theres just no way a bolt is getting on this thing from the inside.

self tapping body bolt would do the trick.  but the head wouldn't match the other 3 factory #10 bolt heads, and with gas prices going out the roof, muslims wanting to take over the world, and a president running this country straight into the ground.... I don't need one more thing to make me lose sleep at night.

I'd have no problems welding a plate to the inside of the frame, but not the outside.  I'm obviously stupid picky about the appearance of some things, lol!

davemissing your getting all technical on me.  but I may do the math just to see what it tells me.   whats interesting is that the stripped hole has 4 threads, but the metal thickness for the other hole 2 inches away has only 3.  i'm guessing its getting the seam overlap but I can't see cause of the inside gearbox support in the way.

I installed a helicoil last night.  I'm a little afraid of the bolt going to turn it out so I installed it with loctite thread retainer and I let it set up over night.  guess I'll find out this evening if its gonna work.  if not, I guess I'll drag over the plasma cutter and the mig to the garage and do it that way.


turbodave, you've let me down, lol!   here I am holding you up there with the other buick tech gods that I shamelessly kiss the rears of....  and I was on tb.com yesterday morning and see you started a post linking over to here dissing.    
I would expect board drama transfer from the juvenile posters like me, lol!  

I don't think adding zddp during normal oil change is gonna hurt anything, but why aren't all the 60's 70's and 80's stock and stockish motors dropping like flies?  where are all the catastrophic cam wear failures?
St. Louis is a big classic muscle car town.  almost all of the guys I've talked to at the track or at the local hop running flat tappet cams aren't useing zddp, although probably half of them have heard of it.  Most of them, especially the older guys don't even run synthetic.  and its always the same reply when I ask why. "cause its not  nessecary, just change your oil when it needs it, and keep an eye on oil analysis."
 
those guys over there all know about this board, and probably have for awhile now, and they all know who steve wood, ed baker, etc... are.  I just find it odd that they won't leave the safety net of tb.com to come over here and debate them.
and certainly no disrepect to them either.  It'd be a honor to meet rich and tour his place.  and I've spent thousands with kirban over the years and will continue to do so.  and no punch to tb.com either, I still go there on the rare occasion, I always try to support its vendors.  and I do like all of its hard-core members.  
mike savino doesn't own tbs anymore, and isn't even around, so no one can use that excuse anymore.  
I still love ya dave, lol!  and thanks for the replying in my thread, your still one of my fav tech gurus :supz:

[daveismissing]

Want it invisible? drill the hole bigger, grind the facets off a flange nut, drop it in flange-up,  tack weld so it doesn't turn.

[SuperSix]

Want it invisible? drill the hole bigger, grind the facets off a flange nut, drop it in flange-up,