Hi everyone, hope you had a good Christmas.


I've been spending the last few days putting my car back together, and everything was going fine until I was nearly done and tried to get my driver's side control arm bolts in. They won't thread in all the way!

The passenger's side is OK. The *driver's* side 2 rear control arm bolts (for that U-shaped bracket) only thread in like 3 or 4 turns, then becomes very hard to turn, and then stops all together.

I haven't tried applying *lots* of force because I'm afraid of stripping something, and I am 95% sure it's not crossthreaded. It's almost like my car has frame damage or something and the top end of those threads are messed up somehow. When I look up in there with a flashlight it looks not quite right... like the threads are *slightly* warped and off-center at various points, but I'm not sure if that's from my tries to thread it.

I tried lowering the car back on the ground, hoping that the misalignment or whatever would fix itself, but no. I also tried swapping bolts with the other side, but no again.

It's been so long since I removed those bolts that I don't remember if I had trouble removing them....

HELP PLEASE - any suggestions are welcome! I don't know what to do and I don't want to strip the threads because it's not like that point is replacable if I screw it up torquing on it... I'm incredibly frustrated and feel majorly screwed here! Thanks people.

 

have you tried threading the bolt through without the bracket or anything?
try lubricating them and just go slowly but stop if it doesnt feel right (like you did).


I know how nerve racking that can be though, I was extra careful back there once I noticed it bolted directly to the car


IIRC you used the ES bushings right? Did you trim them (enough)?

 

I should have been more clear about that part... I DID actually try removing everything and tried screwing in the bolts by themselves, but it didn't help. The hardware around it isn't a problem.

Yeah, I used the ES stuff and spent a while trimming things down a bit... I was getting used to the smell of heated polyurethane.

 

I had the same problem with one of my bolts when i was replacing my control arms. Mine threaded about half way in though and then stopped...

My solution was to lube it up and then used the air impact on it. It went in ok and everything seemed fine. I thought I was screwed when I couldn't get it back in normally.

 

grab a few giant c clamps and start yanking the bushes all the way till the nut sits properly. did it once cuz I was too chickened to split the inner shell in order to force new bush over. it works but it'll also takes some frustrations. just hang in there.

 

FIXED!

As per someone's advice I just ran a tap and die set (14mm x 1.5 in case anyone is wondering) through the hole and the bolts, and that did the trick. I don't know how the heck the holes got warped like that, but they both needed re-tapping. One side was also fairly convincingly cross-threaded (partially) somehow, and I couldn't see this until I couldn't figure out why the tap wouldn't start... pretty nerve-wracking trying to decide if you should tap it the way it should go versus the way it seems to be trying to go! In the end, not too many shavings fell out, but that's all it took to fix the problem.

After that, everything threaded together smooth as silk.

Can't wait till tomorrow when I bed-in the brakes and get the wheels aligned. Then no more getting rides or driving a minivan for several weeks!

Thanks to all who posted.