“Wollowed Out” nut after drilling out bolt

[Andrew]

I decided it was time to do the Sway Bar end links on my ’96 accord, which went off without a hitch. Then I figured, “Hey, why not do the frame bushings as well,” which turned into a pain.

I broke the heads off two of the bolts, one on each of the bushings. Being they were rusted in there pretty tight, I decided it would be safer to drill the old bolts out as opposed to using an easy-out and having it break. One side drilled out without any problems, the threads were even left intact after remnants of the old bolt came out. I wasn’t so lucky on the other side, the hole ended up slightly larger than the tap I was using would need to make proper threads despite using the drill bit that was requested on the packaging. My guess is the nut welded to the frame isn’t 100% round. Anyways, long story-short I can’t tighten down one side of the sway bar to the frame.

The nut is in a place where I can see it, but I don’t believe the opening is wide enough to get my angle grinder in to just cut it off. Is there any advice that someone would be able to give to solve this problem?

Topic

[EricTheCarGuy]

Let me guess, the bushings are the ones at the bottom of the wishbone on the lower control arm. If they are then cut the ends off, drill out the part that goes through the fork to remove the lower control arm and replace it, and the through bolts. BTW, the only place you can get those bolts is at Honda.

Bushing replacement is WAY more involved than most people think. I recommend you choose another upgrade to avoid more issues. I put bushings on an Accord like that once. Took the entire day with a shop full of ‘real’ tools to do.

Good luck.

[Andrew]

[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=141983]Let me guess, the bushings are the ones at the bottom of the wishbone on the lower control arm. If they are then cut the ends off, drill out the part that goes through the fork to remove the lower control arm and replace it, and the through bolts. BTW, the only place you can get those bolts is at Honda.

Bushing replacement is WAY more involved than most people think. I recommend you choose another upgrade to avoid more issues. I put bushings on an Accord like that once. Took the entire day with a shop full of ‘real’ tools to do.

Good luck.[/quote]

I don’t believe we’re on the same page as to which bushings it is. It’s just the front sway bar bushings that attach the sway bar to the frame. Had the bolts not broken it would have been a 5 minute job 😛

I drilled the bolts out, one side turned out fine, the other one won’t tap correctly because the hole is more of an oval than a circle, just enough where it won’t tap.

I considered just cutting the nut that’s welded on the opposite side of the frame, but I don’t have enough room to get my angle grinder to it.

I am just trying to see if I have any other options

[Douglas Haynes]

Drill it out larger and tap it to the next size up and then open up the bolt hole or drill it out larger and then use an threaded insert to restore it to the proper thread size.

[Author]

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