Sway bar studs

[Ellie]

Minor tasks somehow always spiral into longer trickier jobs. I removed the front sway bar to replace a broken bracket and bushes but managed to snap off a stud on one of the centre brackets. It just came off as I was undoing the nut. Has anyone replaced one of these studs before? if I drill out the remaining part of the old stud can a bolt be put through from the other side?

[Ellie]

Ok, I've found several threads on the forum where this has happened. I am going to tap a thread into the hole and put a bolt in to hold the bracket. Has anyone used this solution before and has it worked? Cheers

[DieselSpider]

The frame rail really isn't that thick so you probably won't get enough threads cut for to make it sturdy enough.

Here is what those rails look like:


You may be able to drill it out and feed a new bolt in through one of the holes already drilled in the rail by attaching the head of the bolt to some mechanics wire or by going in from the front of the rail.

Here is what was posted in Mirafiori on frame repair:
http://www.mirafiori.com/~courtney/124/ ... erail.html

[vandor]

I think that is what he meant, he said put in a bolt, not a stud. I don't think a stud that relies only on the threads cut would hold either. It has to be a bolt inserted from above.
When this happened to me I cut holes on the side for better access and I reinforced the whole area.

[DieselSpider]

The same as installing a bolt for a trailer hitch in a unibody frame. Tack a piece of mechanics wire to the end of the bolt and feed it through the largest hole in the frame pulling the bolt through with the fish wire so you do not have to much if any cutting. I use the bolts with a wedged flute on the last 3/16 inch of the shank so it grips the hole and wont spin once you start to tighten it. After you've installed a few trailer hitch kits on unibody cars this becomes second nature.

[Ellie]

That is an awesome approach, as long as the bolt head doesn't spin then I'm happy with that. Does anyone know how the original stud was held in place? is there a nut welded within the frame? or was it just welded onto the frame itself or something like that

[vandor]

There is a reinforcement inside the box section and the bolts are welded to that. I don't think they are regular hex bolts, they ust have flat round heads.