The Tale of How A Sheared Bolt Was Fixed and How Another Problem Came to Be

Finally, after months of driving around with only three bolts holding the steering rack in place, I took the initiative and decided to fix the bolt that I had sheared off. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go here. The first time I tried to fix the problem, I drilled a hole that was off-center from the axis of the piece of bolt that's stuck in the subframe. The hole was too large to use a screw extractor and the only option left was to bore that hole out even more and tap it. The screw that holds the rack is an M10-1.25, which means that diameter of the screw is 10 mm and the the spacing between the screw's teeth is 1.25 mm. This is very important information since I have to get a specific sized drill and tap to make it all work properly. I ordered an 8.8 mm drill and a M10-1.25 tap from McMaster-Carr. They'll ship to you on an open order, which means you don't have to pay which, in turn, means that you can return said items if you only use them once.

There I am under my car, bolts undone, bracket moved over to one side. I'm ready to drill this bitch. With my trusty drill in hand, the safety glasses come down, and we start drilling. Hot flecks of steel begin to shoot out away from the drill. We must go deeper. A couple of chips hit my face and one leaves a burn on my nose. The drill suddenly starts to wobble; I'm holding it at a bad angle. Suddenly, the drill tip snaps clean off and is left in the hole. I pull it out and head to the shop to see what I can find.

There are no metric drills. I could either use an S or an 11/32" drill. The former is slightly larger than 8.8 mm and the latter is slightly under 8.8 mm. There is no S, but there is an 11/32" drill. I use this drill to get through that last few millimeters of metal and start drilling into the subframe. That's far enough.

Now it's time to tap this hole. It's quite easy to break a tap in a hole if you don't know what you're doing, but I do so don't worry. I apply some anti-seize compound to the tap to get it nice and lubricated and I start to thread the recently drilled hole. It goes in smoothly and cuts the threads like a hot knife through butter an electric carving knife through a fresh-out-of-the-oven turkey breast.

Finally, it is tapped. Look at those threads, they're beautiful (ignore the burrs). It's time to put the screws in and bolt it in place. I adjust everything properly and get ready to screw it in place. I put one screw in and tighten it slightly and then I put the other screw in and start to torque it all down. Fate, however, would not let me have this victory. Suddenly, after both screws are torqued down, pop! The threads on the other screw gave up the ghost (stripped). Now, I have the same problem again but different. There are two ways to fix this. 1.) Get a new subframe or 2.) get a threaded insert. I'll go with the second, that's easiest.

Now I have to get my hands on a 12.5 mm drill, an M14-1.25 tap, and some Loctite.