I made a boo boo today :(

[DanielIvan]

Purchased a Ford OEM STB for my car from a member of the forums and everything was great except for my being eager. I was so excited! I literally got home from work, skipped dinner with the family just to get it installed.

I scanned everything to make sure it was going to be a quick install and I mean guys, tightening 4 nuts - how difficult could it be, right? Long story short, I ended up stripping one of the chassis bolts because I did not have OEM nuts to use and chose to use some random nuts that fit.

Anyway, I messed up but even with a stripped bolt, I got it to torque down.

My questions now are 1. can the bolt be replaced/repaired down the road? and 2. was the car supposed to come with nuts on those two bolts from the factory at all?

I'm referring to the driver side strut tower chassis bolts. Passenger side was perfectly fine.

*sigh*

:doh: :doh: :clap2: :clap2: :doh:

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[TruBlu16GT]

Depends on how bad you gacked it up. If you can get the nut off, you might be able to straighten out the threads with the correct threaded die. It'll never be perfect again, though.

 

[DanielIvan]

Depends on how bad you gacked it up. If you can get the nut off, you might be able to straighten out the threads with the correct threaded die. It'll never be perfect again, though.

Yeah it's pretty gacked up around the middle. What about replacing it completely? Is that possible?

 

[TruBlu16GT]

Anything's possible. Is it worth the time? Probably not.

 

[GT Pony]

2. was the car supposed to come with nuts on those two bolts from the factory at all?

I would think the nuts would come with the strut tower brace. No nuts on those studs if it didn't come from the factory with a STB.

 

[bluebeastsrt]

Try to repair the threads with a die. Make sure to use the correct pitch and size. If that doesn't work you can probably drill the offending stud out and replace with a nut and bolt.

 

[Martman GT]

I would think the nuts would come with the strut tower brace. No nuts on those studs if it didn't come from the factory with a STB.

Not quite correct. My car came with the factory 20" wheels which includes the K-brace from the firewall to the strut towers. I ordered a factory STB and it didn't come with the nuts, but my car had the nuts already installed. I've seen where others have had no nuts on those studs. It may be that if you get the K-brace, they also include the nuts on the strut towers. I think I remember Bill from CJPP mentioning the fact that you may not have the nuts from the factory on his STB install video.

 

[Glenn G]

Sorry this happened to you

I ordered the FRPP STB and K brace from AM, The box was damaged and of course the nuts were missing, A quick trip to the hardware store for 4 Nylock nuts which costed me around $1 prevented any heartache on my part. Those bolts look welded to the tower, replacing them will not be easy.

 

[bluebeastsrt]

I don't think it'll be that bad to fix. Get a cutting wheel and lob off the stud close to the fender. Get a good sharp drill bit and drill the rest of the welded stud out of the fender. Then just get a bolt with the same size nut as the others so you don't have a million different wrenches if you have to remove it at a later date.

 

[MultiMediaWill]

pics or didn't happen

 

[CB]

If you have trouble getting the nut off, use vice grips on it straight into it so you can pull on it as you ar turning. Not too tight on the vice grips or you'll warp the nut. If that doesn't work, cut it off with a Dremel. You can use a Dremel to dress up the threads too. Or you can use a small triangle file to dress up the threads. I've used both ways many times.

 

[DanielIvan]

I ordered the FRPP STB and K brace from AM, The box was damaged and of course the nuts were missing, A quick trip to the hardware store for 4 Nylock nuts which costed me around $1 prevented any heartache on my part. Those bolts look welded to the tower, replacing them will not be easy.

Maybe not and it probably won't be worth the time either to be honest but I just wanted to know if it could be repaired at some point down the road. I mean, it's just the middle of the bolt that's stripped - a few washers in-between allowed me to catch good thread from the top of the bolt and torque it down. It's on there good, it just looks ugly. :doh:

I don't think it'll be that bad to fix. Get a cutting wheel and lob off the stud close to the fender. Get a good sharp drill bit and drill the rest of the welded stud out of the fender. Then just get a bolt with the same size nut as the others so you don't have a million different wrenches if you have to remove it at a later date.

This will more than likely be the route that I will go in the future when/if it ever becomes necessary. Luckily a k-member brace serves essentially the same purpose just from under neath the car instead of the engine bay. It just looks ugly right now how I have it working :doh:

pics or didn't happen

Sorry bud, I know this is the internet but I am not removing my current washer -nut - three more washers - one more nut set up in order to show you what a stripped bolt looks like.

If you have trouble getting the nut off, use vice grips on it straight into it so you can pull on it as you ar turning. Not too tight on the vice grips or you'll warp the nut. If that doesn't work, cut it off with a Dremel. You can use a Dremel to dress up the threads too. Or you can use a small triangle file to dress up the threads. I've used both ways many times.

Please tell me more. This sounds like something within my abilities. :cheers:

 

[GT Pony]

If the threads aren't buggered up too badly, you can simply chase the threads with the right size die. But if you actually torqued the wrong nut on to the point where it totally stripped out the threads on the stud then you won't be able to chase the threads back.

 

[DanielIvan]

If the threads aren't buggered up too badly, you can simply chase the threads with the right size die. But if you actually torqued the wrong nut on to the point where it totally stripped out the threads on the stud then you won't be able to chase the threads back.

I'm going to have to inspect the threads closely next time I take a look at it. What would be the correct sized die?

 

[CB]

If you have a tap and die set it should have a tool with it to check the threads to determine the size of taps and dies. You do know that the die won't correct the full length of the bolt unless you run it on backwards.

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