Stripped Steering Rack Nut

Yesterday while I was tightening the lower bolt for the U-bracket on the steering rack I was getting close to torque, and then it suddenly got much easier to tighten. I immediately stopped and removed the bolt and when it came out I found the threads from the nut had come out with it. The bolt itself is undamaged, but I now need to deal with figuring out how to repair the threads so I can wrap up my front end work.

I see three options available and I'd like to know what others may have experience with in a similar situation.

Option #1 Drill out the remaining threads and then drill out the back side of the cross member and run a longer bolt all the way through with a nut on the far side of the cross member.

Option #2 Cut open the bottom of the cross member, remove the old welded nut and replace it with a new one.

Option #3 Use a helicoil kit to drill out and replace the destroyed threads.

For Option #1, I'm concerned that the required torque for the bolt may deform the cross member without some sort of insert inside the cross member to take the load. For Option #2, I'd probably need to get the truck to a shop since I don't have the tools to do the repair. I like Option #3 the best, but I'm concerned about the helicoil's ability to the take the torque on the steering rack bolt (123 ft-lbs). Does anyone have experience with using a helicoil in a similar high torque capacity? Does anyone have any other suggestions for fixing this?

 

I had the same thing happen to me. I used a long bolt through the whole crossmember. Maybe not the best solution, but it’s been working for 5 plus years now….

 

Do you remember how much you had to drill out the the cross member? I know there is a hole on the back side that at least seems to partially line up, were you able to use that or did you need to drill a new hole? Did you stick with an M14 bolt? How long was the bolt you ended up using?

 

Oof…. You are testing my memory now. I want to say I went to Lowe’s and bought a bolt that was the same as what I started with but longer. I don’t remember drilling anything out. If I remember right, the welded nut broke loose. I managed to get the bolt out. I then used a magnetic to wiggle the nut out. I measured the length from underneath and went with it.

 

I appreciate the information.

 

Simplest fix would be move up to a barely larger bolt.....maybe even sae...
tap and use that.....what have u got to lose.....

 

There’s a sleeve on the inside of the center bushing, you’ll either have to go to a bolt size that negates the sleeve and goes inside diameter of the bushing or go hunt for a sleeve with the right inner and outer diameter. I’ve got the same issue, I’m planning to cut off the stripped out nut on the crossmember and weld on the correct size nut, not the funnest sounding task

 

Based on hole sizing, it looks like I'd need to move up to an M16 in order to have a pilot hole size large enough to remove all of the old threads. It's possible, but it would also require drilling out the hole in the bracket to accommodate the larger bolt and I don't know if I'd be compromising the integrity of the bracket to take the force at that point.

I think we may be dealing with two separate nuts. The one I stripped is the lower one for the u shaped bracket on the passenger side. It doesn't have a sleeve through the bushing. It sounds like you are dealing with the vertical bolt in the center of the rack? That one does go through the bushing, and you have access to the back side of the nut because it isn't inside the cross member.

 

You are correct, I’m talking about the vertical bolt.

 

Bumping this to see if anyone else has any thoughts. Right now my plan is to start with the helicoil and see how that works since doing that first leaves me with both other options still on the table if it doesn't work.

 

Send it on the helicoil. my only 2 cents, get the "real" ones from a good supplier... not the junk crap metal ones from ebay or Amazon.

 

Yeah, I figure if I'm going to do it for something this important I'm going to spend the money on a good setup, so I dropped the money for the kit I linked to in my original post from McMaster-Carr.

 

For whatever it's worth so far, I helicoiled it, and it was fine when torqued to spec. I'll update if I ever have any problems with the repair.

 

Because that bolts gets 125lbs torque
I would go with a new nut rated for that amount of torque

 

I'm gonna revive this one as I've run into the similar situation.
When I started to tight up the bolts they go loose then start to tighten up again.
Are the Helicoils still holding up?
Has anyone cut the bottom or sides to replace the nuts?
Has anyone remade the bracket with stronger material?
Thanks for your help.

 

It's holding up fine so far. For what it's worth while working on the repair I realized that I had swapped the vertical center bolt and the horizontal bolt for the bracket. That meant that the bolt in the center vertical spot on the rack was too long and poking through the cross member, and the bolt going through the bracket was shorter than it should have been and couldn't get enough thread engagement which was why it stripped out. I put in the helicoil and corrected that mistake and everything seems okay now.

 

Well I helicoiled it. I got a set form orilles , had to buy the drill bit too. It took me two tries. I was able to torque the bolts down without them pulling out so it's golden for now. But I see a rebuilt mount in my furniture.
Thanks for your help.

 

https://333fabrications.com/products/hd-billet-rack-clamp

 

Guess I’m going to get one of these, didn’t know about this, thanks,
Out of stock but will be back in stock

 

Why? You hit the torque spec right? I wouldn't screw with it unless you absolutely had to.