So I have this friend who may have theoretically stripped his inner ball joint bolt that bolts into the subframe. Now he's not sure if the subframe is stripped or was stripped by someone else but he did tell me it took a 4 foot cheater pipe, and even then, some muscle to remove them with a buddy standing on the frame to remove 3 of them (impact pulled out the 4th without too much of a hitch). He DID run out last night and buy a tap and die set and plans on cleaning up threads in both locations but if he theoretically stripped out his subframe, he's wondering what the best course of action is especially with such an important suspension component.

Thanks,
Nick

 

There was probably sand dragged through the threads because the bolt is exposed under the car. You could get a helicoil kit if that works but being a suspension bolt it may not be strong enough for those and hard to thread in the steel. I'd drill them through and get a bolt with a lock not. Or find a new subframe on eBay or a junkyard.

 

Just because it took a lot of torque to remove doesn't mean the threads are hosed. The bolt was probably just really corroded in there. Chase the threads and get some new bolts. Don't forget anti-sieze when you're putting everything back together.

If the subframe is stripped you could drill it out and do a thru-bolt. Not sure if you could get to a nut from the top though. A timesert would work just fine provided there is enough metal in the sleeve to support drilling it out larger for the timesert.

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Ended up buying a tap and die set and cleaned up the bolt and the subframe and i can say that all is happy. Used an old school hand screwdriver to tap the subframe as the tool it comes with wouldn't clear the power steering components without flipping the subframe or taking things off of it. The set is handy to have around as I messed up some of the steering knuckle threads where the outer ball joint was when I was chiseling it out with the air hammer. Paid for itself :D